Horst P Horst Cy Twombly

A legendary portraitist depicts a master abstractionist at his majestic Roman palazzo Horst P. Horst (1906-99) possessed a deep understanding of architecture, having studied it in Hamburg and apprenticed with Le Corbusier in Paris. Horst later designed his own house on Long Island, and from the 1960s to the '80s he photographed the luxurious homes of style icons throughout the world. One of the most striking of these shoots took place in 1966 at the Roman palazzo of seminal artist Cy Twombly. The home that Twombly and his wife Tatiana Franchetti created on Via di Monserrato was a seamless blend of art and life, and Horst deftly captured its atmosphere of raw elegance: some rooms appear starkly empty, while others are inhabited by antique furniture and classical sculpture, the figures from the myths that inspired Twombly. The generous proportions of the palazzo suited the large scale of Twombly's paintings, which he liked to move from one lofty room to another. Horst also photographed Twombly's dandyish manner of dress: the velour hats, the handwoven tweeds and the World War I greatcoat worn while posing by his gleaming 1928 Alfa Romeo. Including many previously unseen photographs from Horst's archive, Horst: Cy Twomblyoffers an intimate insight into the home of a largely private artist, and will appeal to fans of Twombly and interior design aficionados alike.

**A New York Times Editors Choice** "The most substantive biography of the artist to date...propulsive, positive and persuasive."—Holland Cotter, New York Times Book Review **PEN / Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography Finalist** **A Marfield Prize Finalist** Cy Twombly was a man obsessed with myth and history—including his own. Shuttling between stunning homes in Italy and the United States where he perfected his room-size canvases, he managed his public image carefully and rarely gave interviews. Upon first seeing Twombly’s remarkable paintings, writer Joshua Rivkin became obsessed himself with the mysterious artist, and began chasing every lead, big or small—anything that might illuminate those works, or who Twombly really was. Now, after unprecedented archival research and years of interviews, Rivkin has reconstructed Twombly’s life, from his time at the legendary Black Mountain College to his canonization in a 1994 MoMA retrospective; from his heady explorations of Rome in the 1950s with Robert Rauschenberg to the ongoing efforts to shape his legacy after his death. Including previously unpublished photographs, Chalk presents a more personal and searching type of biography than we’ve ever encountered, and brings to life a more complex Twombly than we’ve ever known.

A lifetime of style / Anna Wintour -- Introduction / Susanna Brown -- I. Paris style: 1930s Paris - fashion, art, elegance and imagination / Philippe Garner. Electric beauty / Susanna Brown -- II. Couture fashion in the 1930s: The aura of glamour : couture fashion / Claire Wilcox. Mainbocher corset / Susanna Brown -- III. Stage and screen: From limelight to starlight : portraits of stage and screen stars / Terence Pepper. Marlene Dietrich / Susanna Brown -- IV. Horst and Britain: An English interlude / Robin Muir. Royal still lifes / Susanna Brown -- V. Fashion in colour: Horst's world in colour / Shawn Waldron -- Vogue covers -- VI. Nature: Patterns from nature / Martin Barnes. Kodak negative album / Susanna Brown -- VII. Travel: Middle-Eastern diaries / Horst P. Horst and Valentine Lawford. Persepolis Bull / Susanna Brown -- VIII. The male nude: Hard bodies : male nudes / Oliver Winchester. The classical torso / Susanna Brown -- IX. Living in style: Conversation pieces : interiors of Horst and Lawford / Glenn Adamson. The house that Horst grew / Susanna Brown -- X. Carmen : an interview / Susanna Brown.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INTRODUCTION: TWOMBLY'S BOOKS -- 1 MEDITERRANEAN PASSAGES: RETROSPECT -- 2 PSYCHOGRAM AND PARNASSUS: HOW (NOT) TO READ A TWOMBLY -- 3 TWOMBLY'S VAGUENESS: THE POETICS OF ABSTRACTION -- 4 ACHILLES' HORSES, TWOMBLY'S WAR -- 5 ROMANTIC TWOMBLY -- 6 THE PASTORAL STAIN -- 7 PSYCHE: THE DOUBLE DOOR -- 8 TWOMBLY'S LAPSE -- POSTSCRIPT: WRITING IN LIGHT -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX

"The photographs are all reproduced in full-page plates. For anyone interested in photography, fashion, or celebrity, some of the most fascinating faces of the twentieth century are to be found in the pages of this book."--BOOK JACKET.

Cy Twombly (1928-2011) created art that was remarkable for its versatility, sensitivity and originality. Throughout his career, he followed his own artistic pathway, independent from contemporary trends, and for a long time his work went unnoticed by a wider audience. By the time of his death in Rome, at the age of 83, he was internationally recognized as one of the greatest and most idiosyncratic artists of the 20th and early 21st century. This book provides an authoritative overview of Twombly's complex body of work, bringing together the most important of his paintings and painting cycles, as well as a selection of his drawings, sculptures and photographs.