Note I

Universal Limited Art Editions, Inc.|Cy Twombly|Universal Limited Art Editions

1967 · Etching · Drawings and Prints

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.

Artist

Universal Limited Art Editions, Inc.|Cy Twombly|Universal Limited Art Editions

Date

1967

Medium

Etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Stewart S. MacDermott Fund, 1968