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Note I

Cy Twombly American
Publisher Published by Universal Limited Art Editions American
1967
Not on view
Central to Twombly’s art are allusions to processes, gestures, and forms of writing. Whether tight and multiplied, as in Note I, or enlarged and loose, as in Untitled I, made the same year, Twombly’s rhythmic glyphs and flowing lines evoke a range of associations, including graffiti, children’s doodles, and exercises for learning script, such as the Palmer Method, a muscle training technique that promises greater efficiency and uniformity in handwriting. Twombly’s inimitable marks, however, lack the perfected regularity promised by such exercises. Rather, by showing variations in the slanted, looped forms, densely layered in regulated horizontal lines compressed in a tight rectangular space, Twombly gestures to the fatigue generated by the act of writing, while also revealing the poetry possessed by the wiry and irregular etched forms.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Note I
  • Artist: Cy Twombly (American, Lexington, Virginia 1928–2011 Rome)
  • Printer: Universal Limited Art Editions, Inc.
  • Publisher: Published by Universal Limited Art Editions
  • Date: 1967
  • Medium: Etching
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 25 9/16 × 20 1/16 in. (65 × 51 cm)
    Image: 8 3/4 × 10 3/4 in. (22.3 × 27.3 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Stewart S. MacDermott Fund, 1968
  • Object Number: 68.523.2
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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Untitled, broadside cover for the poem "The Song of the Border-Guard", Cy Twombly American, Linocut
Untitled, broadside cover for the poem "The Song of the Border-Guard"
Multiple artists/makers
1952
Sketches, Cy Twombly American, Etching
Sketches
Multiple artists/makers
1967–75
Untitled, Cy Twombly American, Mezzotint and drypoint
Untitled
Multiple artists/makers
1968
E from Sketches, Cy Twombly American, Etching
E from Sketches
Multiple artists/makers
1967–75
C from Sketches, Cy Twombly American, Etching
C from Sketches
Multiple artists/makers
1967–75

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