The Other Cy Twombly: The Painter’s Polaroids

Artland’s “The Other” series explores the lesser-known creative outcome of artists who became celebrated for other mediums or art forms. Often, great artists are multifaceted but achieve fame because of their work in one specific medium. The purpose of this series is to shed light on the complex nature of their talent by bringing to attention not what they are best known for, but on the lesser-known side of their artistic output. 

This week, we take a look at Cy Twombly’s Polaroid photography. A prominent voice within Abstract Expressionism, Twombly is celebrated for his mysterious, impassioned painting style characterized by scribbles of words, poems, and gestures of all kinds; however, he also left a legacy of stunning and dreamy Polaroid photographs that hold a gentle yet powerful place in his artistic practice. 

Biography of Cy Twombly

Cy Twombly was born in Lexington, Virginia, on April 25, 1928. He studied art in Boston and New York, where he became close friends with fellow artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, and later attended the famed avant-garde art institute Black Mountain College in North Carolina in the early 1950s, where he studied alongside Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell, who would become his mentor. Following his studies, Twombly started traveling throughout Europe and North Africa with Rauschenberg, a truly formative experience that would have a formidable impact on his artistic endeavor. In fact, when Twombly emerged as a prominent figure on the art scene in the mid-1950s, his signature abstract gestures and energetic scribbles were strongly inspired by the primitive art, archaeology, and ancient artifacts he studied during his travels. He yearned for times past and found inspiration in ancient, classical, and modern poetic traditions, going in a totally opposite direction from the prevailing Pop Art tendencies at the time.

Moving to Italy

Cy Twombly permanently moved to Italy in the late 1950s, removing himself from the pressures of the New York art world and settling in the country that inspired him the most, where he submerged himself in the rich art historical and classical philosophical traditions. His move to Italy, where he would remain for the rest of his life, inspired some of his most famous artworks like his “blackboard paintings”. His energetic artworks were inspired by the Roman and Italian past, mythology and art history, and his long walks around the city of Rome. 

Twombly became famous all over the world for his mysterious, poetic scribble paintings – in a less flashy way than many of his contemporaries, he established an important place for himself in the art world on his own terms. He continued to travel frequently throughout his life, and though he often returned to the United States to exhibit and spend periods of time there, Italy remained his main place of residence until his death in 2011.