Cy Twombly Paradise
5 June–12 October 2014
Museo Jumex
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra #303
Col. Ampliación Granada
Mexico City
Curated by Julie Sylvester and Philip Larratt-Smith
Cy Twombly Paradise is the first exhibition in Latin America of one of the greatest postwar American artists. Organized by Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo and curated by Julie Sylvester and Philip Larratt-Smith, this comprehensive survey features close to 60 paintings, works on paper, and sculptures from 1951 to 2011, including four of his last paintings as well as several works belonging to the Cy Twombly Foundation that will be exhibited for the first time.
Cy Twombly Paradise presents an original perspective on the mysteries and revelations of Twombly’s art. His work revolves around the great universal themes of love, art, beauty, and death, and yet the singularity of his artistic vision, his unique perspective on the world, renders it original in the highest degree. Like many of his generation, Twombly reacted against the dominant painterly tendency of Abstract Expressionism, but while others moved toward Pop imagery and Dada procedures, Twombly cross-pollinated the legacy and permissions of gestural abstraction with the traditions of European painting. His innovative use of language and broad range of allusion and reference open his work up to history, literature, and philosophy, blurring the boundaries between painting, drawing, and writing while preserving a high degree of abstraction. A love of the vernacular is balanced against an extraordinary refinement and a profound cultural knowledge. Indeed, his work oscillates between binary opposites: reason and passion, figuration and abstraction, the Apollonian and the Dionysiac, sexuality and intellect, antiquity and the present, imagination and observation, lucidity and frenzy.
The exhibition features loans of major works from the Cy Twombly Foundation, Colección Jumex, The Broad Art Foundation, The Menil Collection, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and distinguished private collections.
Cy Twombly Paradise will be accompanied by a major publication in Spanish and English language versions. Edited by Julie Sylvester and designed by Takaaki Matsumoto, this landmark book will include a full-color plate section of the works in the exhibition, Psychedelic Antiquity, an essay by Philip Larratt-Smith, as well as a selected chronology and bibliography for the artist.
Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo was created to promote production, reflection, and scholarship about contemporary art and generate innovative ways to foster art and culture. This is done through Colección Jumex, the Foundation’s art collection; Museo Jumex, a new venue for the exhibition and activation of contemporary art; Galería Jumex Ecatepec, an experimental exhibition space; and Editorial Jumex, a platform for the publication and dissemination of contemporary art discourse. Additionally, Fundación Jumex promotes its mission through three complimentary areas: Fomento, a program dedicated to support the study and production of contemporary art and independent projects; Investigación, a department dedicated to the research and analysis of contemporary culture; and Educación, an area committed to enhancing the visitor’s ability to understand and appreciate contemporary art.
