In the wake of her book, Reading Cy Twombly: Poetry in PaintÌý(Princeton University Press, 2016), Mary Jacobus will explore the use ofÌýquotations in one of Twombly’s major paintings.
The American painter Cy Twombly (1928-2011) lived in Rome from the 1950sÌýonward. Despite his continuing links to the US, he described himself asÌýa ‘Mediterranean’ painter. His vast tripartite canvas, Say Goodbye,ÌýCatullus, to the shores of Asia Minor, spanning two decades, wasÌýfinally completed to coincide with his MoMA retrospective in 1994.
Previously known as Unfinished Painting, the painting exemplifiesÌýTwombly’s use of quotation in his painting–and the questions it raises.ÌýSay Goodbye includes a palimpsest of passages drawn from Rilke,ÌýCavafy, and Seferis, among others. At a distance, it appears empty.ÌýClose-up, it provides a literary archaeology. How much do we need to knowÌýabout Twombly’s quotations, and how do they affect the viewer of his work?
Mary Jacobus is professor emerita of English at the University of Cambridge and Cornell University, and an Honorary Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford. She has written widely on visual art, Romanticism, feminism, and psychoanalysis. Her recent books includeÌýThe Poetics of Psychoanalysis: In the Wake of Klein (2005)ÌýandÌýRomantic Things: A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud (2012).