Cy Twombly Biography

Edwin Parker ‘Cy’ Twombly, Jr. was a renowned American painter and sculptor. Born in Lexington, Virginia, the most important individual who inspired him in his formative years was the Spanish artist, Pierre Daura. After receiving formal training in art from Pierre Daura and other different noteworthy art and museum schools, he took up painting professionally. He developed an interest in German Expressionism, Dadaism, and Soutine's work. He also took up sculpting and made statuette from discarded materials. Most of his works were inspired by his sponsored tours to Europe and Africa. He worked as a cryptologist in the U.S. Army for a brief period as well. This job influenced his artistic style and became his trademark medium. He started with effortless graphic marks, and soon created a meta-script which used abridged signs, numbers and uncomplicated hieroglyphs. His work demonstrated an amalgamation of poignant expansiveness and scholarly sophistication, and an immeasurable preoccupation with cultural memory. His paintings, drawings and sculptures based on the theme of mythology are an important fragment of that cultural memory. Together with Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, he is regarded as one of the chief artists who detached himself from Abstract Expressionism.