F from Sketches

Donn Steward|Cy Twombly|Universal Limited Art Editions

1967–75 · Etching · Drawings and Prints

The prints in the Sketches portfolio contain multiple allusions to the gestures and forms of writing, as well as to the physical process of mark-making. However, despite visible letters and shapes, Twombly’s skeins, objects, and ideograms convey neither information nor narrative. Instead, the artist presents writing as an abstraction. His rhythmic glyphs and flowing lines evoke a range of associations, including graffiti, children’s doodles, mathematical formulations, and exercises for learning and refining script. The wiry, inimitable forms lack perfected regularity and instead allude to the physical and mental fatigue that comes from the acts of writing and of creating art. These allover compositions with bold, fluid lines concurrently recall the gestures of the Abstract Expressionists and the everyday jottings of unrelated marks, words, and bits of design that one might make in a small notebook.

Artist

Donn Steward|Cy Twombly|Universal Limited Art Editions

Date

1967–75

Medium

Etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

John B. Turner Fund, 1975