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Cy Twombley on paper

April 10, 2020

THE WELLINGTON: 15,000 square ft. + opening on the Upper East Side Spring 2016. Gallery rental space is available. We welcome any secondary market artist exhibition ideas as well. Please do not hesitate to contact us (917) 583-5301

CY TWOMBLY AND JEAN DUBUFFET: CHILDLIKE YET NOT CHILDISH

Some of Twombly and Dubufeet’s critics—and they had many—likened their work to nothing more than child’s play. But this was their genius. Isn’t the child, with so little inhibition, scribbling solely from instinct and impulse? The child is the quintessential authentic artist: untrained, motivated by only what is visceral. It was their wisdom to infuse this aesthetic with their own intellectual touch.The recent record sale prices achieved by Cy Twombly and Jean Dubuffet suggest an emerging collecting trend toward more whimsical styles of art . The world has become so complex that people increasingly appreciate these compositions more than ever before.

Cy Twombly

Untitled , 1964

Graphite, coloured pencil,

wax crayon and ballpoint

pen on paper 27.3 x 39.3 in

(69.34 x 99.82 cm)

Writing and language also served as major conceptual foundations for Twombly’s mostly abstract art. In addition to the written word – in the form of poems, myths, and histories – he also focused on the process of writing, both by sketching unidentifiable doodles and splotches or words directly onto the canvas and by creating line-based compositions, often inspired by handwriting. Through these methods, he was often able to suggest subtle narratives that lay beneath the surfaces of his paintings.

Much of Twombly’s work is a direct reflection of, response to, and re-working of the ancient Greco-Roman past that surrounded him in his chosen home in Rome. Inspirations came from Greek and Roman mythology, history, and places, French Neo-classicism, and contemporary graffiti on ancient local walls.

Jean Dubuffet comp

Paysage au château (avec 3 personnages) , 1975 acrylic on canvas 38 1/4 x 51 1/8 in. (97 x 130 cm) Initialed and dated “J.D. 75” lower right.

Estimate $600,000 – 800,000

sold for $1,349,000

Wellington is offering three works

superior in composition and price.

Please call us for details (212)

628-1060

Jean Dubuffet disliked authority from a very early age. Although he was well-educated, he came to reject his studies, preferring to educate himself by reading the work of Dr. Hans Prinzhorn, who drew comparisons between the art of asylum inmates and the artwork of children. Dubuffet was launched to success with a series of exhibitions that opposed the prevailing mood of post-war Paris and consequently sparked enormous scandal. While the public looked for a redemptive art and a restoration of old values, Dubuffet confronted them with childlike images that satirized the conventional genres of high art.

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