Twombly Werkszenen | Klaus-Peter Busse

CY TWOMBLY

WERKSZENEN | SETTINGS OF THE WORK

Twombly's work is not only about wars, but also about violence, injustice, death, nature and disasters, i.e. about things and events that are still very relevant today. Probably there is no other artistic work in the second half of the 20th century, which so condensed points to a world that needs to be renegotiated. In his work, however, Cy Twombly also points to the task of art: to represent a cultural heritage, but also to negotiate it. Twombly's work is personal, sometimes intimate, and is always based on his own experiences, which are reflected in the process of painting and drawing.

The artist's work is interpreted, collected, discussed and much more. It has become a standard for other artists. These all are settings of communication with the work that occur in specific scenes. The project (2026–2028) examines these settings as scenographies and is intended as a work in progress. It appears online in the form of booklets in loose succession. Several booklets are planned. A new and actual version of Twombly in North Rhine-Westphalia will be ready for download in May 2026. After the project will be finished, all issues will be published as a portfolio in a limited edition by Kleinheinrich in Münster.

CT IN NRW

In 1960, Cy Twombly exhibited his paintings for the first time in Germany. After Düsseldorf and Essen, Cologne soon became an important place in the historical reception of his work, which condensed in North Rhine-Westphalia in these years. The essay To The Happy Few: Twombly in NRW follows the path of these exhibitions and publications. His title To the happy few quotes the exhibition of Reiner Speck's collection in the Museum Haus Lange - Haus Esters in 1983 in Krefeld.

21 x 28 cm, dt,, 54 S., 2026

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ECHO

Twombly's works create studies by scholars, poems by poets, music, and they create exhibitions and essays - very different events. These specific scenes of reception are narratives on the work. They show where Twombly's work has led their authors, they complete already existing narratives, or they tell new stories. These narratives give the most important reason to re-evaluate Twombly's art and prepare it for the interests of young generations. The booklet on Echo is looking for the different narratives that appear in the history of reception of Twombly's work. This echo not only sounds in academic events but also in art or between art and science.

EPHEMERA

Looking into Twombly's work many ephemera appear, i.e. documents on the outermost edge of the work that are easily overlooked or not known at all: invitation cards to exhibitions, their reviews in magazines, Twombly's drafts for exhibition posters and other documents from the author's archive. The booklet will show the overview of these ephemera as a kind of Atlas, following the ideas of Aby Warburg. The insight into these tables of „montages“, also arranged by Georges Didi-Huberman, confirms the idea to describe the archive as a work in progress.