Galleria La Tartaruga, Rome
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1980

Turin, Galleria In Arco, Novelli - Twombly - Opere su carta, September - October 1988, cat. no. 4, illustrated

Giulio Bolaffi, Giorgio Mondadori, Eds., Catalogo Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Vol. 19, Milan 1983, p. 442, illustrated 
Nicola del Roscio, Ed., Cy Twombly Drawings, Cat. Rais. Volume 4 1964-1969, Munich 2014, cat. no. 73, p. 102, illustrated in color

This work is in good condition overall. Please contact the Contemporary Art Department at 212-606-7254 for a professional condition report prepared by Alan Firsker. Framed under Plexiglas.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Twombly’s Untitled is an expert study in the transference of energy through artmaking, communicating the artist’s fervor and ethos with a thoughtful concision and economy of form. Modulating from tempestuous scribbles in an array of colored pencils, to more studied and carefully delineated shapes in graphite, Untitled alludes to a representational subject without relying on any specific depiction. Along those lines, a palette and censorship bar can be gleaned but not confirmed. Similarly, Twombly intersperses forms which resemble the Latin alphabet throughout, though they do not link together to form words or phrases, and often descend into scribbles, evading easy detection. “His interest seems to be not so much in whole words as in marks and signs that are vividly and often polymorphous suggestive, that make words pop into our head almost before we know it” (Roberta Smith, The Great Mediator in Cy Twombly: Paintings—Works on Paper—Sculpture, Whitechapel Gallery, London 1987, p. 16). Twombly hints at showing but never tells, bringing together automatic gestures with elements of pre-meditated composition, forging a sense of energy and inspiration in the viewer disproportionate to the quantity of pigment on the paper. In the words of Roberta Smith, “no other artist has such a gift for open-endedness. Numbers become dates, words become lines expressive of feeling, lines become tones, tones become tensions, white becomes resolution” (ibid).