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. 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 first part of the essay follows the path of these exhibitions and publications. The project (2027–2028) continues to look at other settings of the work as scenographies and is intended as a work in progress. 

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 project  will explore this collection as a story of approach to the paintings and works on paper by the author.The volume includes the documentation of all books, exhibition catalogues, documents, selected ephemera and posters of Cy Twombly´s work, which are collected in the author´s archive. This atlas shows the relations between the work and these documents as a history of  a personal impact.