Cy Twombly: Natural History, Part I, Mushrooms

No. I 1974
Lithograph and mixed media on paper
support: 758 x 558 mm, on paper, unique

No. II 1974
Lithograph and mixed media on paper
support: 758 x 558 mm, on paper, unique

No. III 1974
Lithograph and mixed media on paper
support: 758 x 558 mm, on paper, unique

No. IV 1974
Lithograph and mixed media on paper
support: 758 x 558 mm, on paper, unique

No. V 1974
Lithograph and mixed media on paper
support: 758 x 558 mm, on paper, unique

No. VI 1974
Lithograph and mixed media on paper
support: 758 x 558 mm, on paper, unique

No. VII 1974
Lithograph and mixed media on paper
support: 758 x 558 mm, on paper, unique

No. VIII 1974
Lithograph and mixed media on paper
support: 758 x 558 mm, on paper, unique

No. IX 1974
Lithograph and mixed media on paper
support: 758 x 558 mm, on paper, unique

No. X 1974
Lithograph and mixed media on paper
support: 758 x 558 mm, on paper, unique

This is one of two portfolios made in the mid 1970s, the other being ‘Natural History Part II (Some Trees of Italy)’ 1976. Twombly uses a quasi-scientific presentation with his characteristic expressive, gestural graphic language; the prints contain a variety of different lithographic printings with collaged sheets of paper and photographs.

American painter, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. He studied from 1948 to 1951. In 1951–2 he spent a semester at Black Mountain College, an important period for his involvement with Abstract Expressionism. Action painting in particular, became his point of departure for the development of a highly personal ‘handwriting' that served as a vehicle for literary content.

In Untitled (1952; Basle, Kstmus.) Twombly used long brushstrokes in contrasting tones against a dark background, only to paint partly over them again. This alternation between the visible and the hidden has been interpreted as a struggle between memory and oblivion.

In the mid 1950s Twombly began working also in chalk and pencil and his paintings assumed a more graphic character. The stylistic changes in his paintings were subsequently registered more or less simultaneously in his prolific production of drawings and prints. The potential of gestural brushwork as a form of handwriting was not exploited by Twombly until he settled in Rome and found inspiration in classical landscapes and literature.

In the 1960s Twombly made particular use of subjective, erotic signs in his paintings, and he began to use more intense and denser colours.

From 1976 Twombly again produced sculptures, lightly painted in white, suggestive of Classical forms. In the mid 1970s Twombly began to evoke landscape through colour (favouring brown, green and light blue), written inscriptions and collage elements, often distributing these features across the surface by means of right angles that emphasize the legibility of the image and its narrative character.

Miroslaw Balka: Oasis (C.D.F.) 1989

Oasis (C.D.F.) 1989
Mixed media, displayed: 3730 x 3763 x 4510 mm, sculpture

This multi-part installation is composed of fourteen wooden parts, one of which is attached to the end of a rain pipe and supports a small metal tray which contains an electric water pump that has milk running from it. A free standing bed unit is partially filled with pine needles and a doorsill sits on the floor in the foreground. Some of the parts are mounted on a wall while others sit directly on the floor in positions determined by the artist.

In response to a questionnaire sent in November 1999, the artist revealed that he used old, weathered wood from his house in Otwolk. The pieces of wood are rough and textured with cement residues, plaster and other filling materials. There is also some paint in localised areas. As the artist explained in January 2000, he applied black paint on the top of the coffin and painted the black leaves himself. The bottom left vertical plank of the house frame is decorated with a fixed metal flower ornament whereas the equivalent right-hand plank is decorated with a pencil drawing of another flower. The coffin piece comes from another sculpture, River, which the artist modified by cutting and assembling it. The sculpture has been assembled mostly using nails. The tin-plate metal tray has welded joints and is meant to slide in and out of the drain pipe section that supports it. Screws are used to fix the parts that are mounted on the wall.

There are hand-written inscriptions on the back of most of the wooden pieces and on the cardboard pieces under the plywood in the bed, mainly giving the artist’s name, work’s title and instructions for installation. Most of the planks have been given a letter and indications as to where to position them.

When the work arrived, the metal tray was quite rusted. The existing water pump (not original to the work) and wiring were considered dangerous. There was a small broken and detached piece at one extremity of the drain pipe and some of the wooden pieces had noticeable splits. There was flaking of filling and paint materials, and some pine needles were falling through the gaps along the interior sides of the bed. However, the artist wants to maintain the weathered aspect of the work. The metal tray was cleaned and the holes in the tin plate repaired by soldering. The surface was then coated for protection. The water pump and wiring were replaced and the broken piece was repositioned and fixed. Brown tape was installed along the interior edges of the bed in order to prevent the pine needles from falling through the gaps in the plywood board.

Gabriel Orozco at MOMA

"I don't like a big enterprise of people working for me," he said. "I don't want to be a master. I want to be a kid. To keep making art, you have to put yourself in the position of a beginner. You have to be excited by a stone on the sidewalk or, like a child, the flight of a bird."

In 1993, the year that he created "La DS," Mr. Orozco's career took off with multiple exhibitions. Among them was one that Marian Goodman arranged at the Venice Biennale, where he showed "Empty Shoebox," an open cardboard box left on the floor to be kicked about. "It shocked everybody," Ms. Goodman said. "He has a lot of courage in what he does and can be quite radical."

"La DS," a well-polished silver Citroën sliced lengthwise and reassembled without the middle third, is Mr. Orozco's signature work, a totemic French car remade in a Peugeot garage on the outskirts of Paris in 1993.

Villa Julia designed by Mariscal 2009

A small cardboard house designed for Magis by Javier Mariscal.