Cy Twombly

There are few iconic artists. You know, the ones that you see a painting or a photograph and whether you know anything about art or not, you know the name of the artist - or at the very least - have noted their work. Ansel Adams, and his photography of Yosemite National Park, for example; Andy Warhol, another. While you may not know his name, you've certainly see the work of Cy Twombly, too.

 

Familiar? Surely you've seen these before and wondered, who scribbled all over the paper and framed it? Well - Cy Twombly! Twombly was an incredible artist who dealt in paintings, drawings, etchings, and sculpture - all of which had a very organic sort of flow, and were very abstract. Some of his most beautiful pieces, in my opinion, were his blackboard paintings, a full series of work he completed between the 60's and 70's, which now sell upwards of $6,000,000 for large originals. Twombly used wax crayon on primarily gray backgrounds that were painted to look like aged, cloth eraser swiped blackboards.

 

 

This one, "Untitled" dated 1970, sold at a Christie's auction for a whopping $69.6 MILLION! Yes, MILLION! Which is well above the $35 - 55 Million dollar estimate it was given. Where does art like this go?

 

 

Well, it becomes part of a private collection, enjoyed by few until it either becomes part of a fund endowment or goes back up for auction to be sold to another very elite owner. But when you have work like Twombly's, what type of decorating might you have around it? Would it need to be as obscure, abstract? Could his paintings work in a room otherwise entirely traditional? Thomas Jayne thought so ...

This home, featured in Architectural Digest, is stunning and filled with wonderful, VERY EXPENSIVE pieces of art, by some of the most noted contemporary artists ever to live. I love this painting here, so much so - that I decided to do a little copycat of it in the new apartment. Here's a little peek:

Still SO much to do in the new place. I'm hoping that I can get an incredible amount of work done on it this long weekend, and get some good pictures to you all by middle of the week next week! Tonight I'm hoping that the chairs I have sell on CL, so I can build (YES BUILD) a new seating option for that space. Stay tuned!