Cy Twombly & Friends at Sotheby's Paris

09 October - 29 October

Place Beauvau
92 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré 75008 Paris
France

This season, Sotheby’s is honored to invite two masters of the Art world within its walls, namely Galerie Chenel, which specializes in the trade of Antiquities, and celebrated photographer, François Halard, to pay homage to the art and personality of Cy Twombly. Both Chenel and Halard share decades of eclectic taste and passionate engagement for Antiquities.

Twombly's multi-faceted, scriptural oeuvre establishes him as a major artist of the second half of the 20th century. At a time when abstraction was dominating the international scene, Cy Twombly refused to reject figuration and drew his inspiration from the poetic and mythical art of Antiquities, as observed in both his paintings and his Italian lifestyle. The reference to the Antiquity appears as a leitmotiv, with the regular evocation of Latin poets, Roman gods, and legendary episodes in the history of Rome. This Mediterranean inspiration equally comes into view in his living residences and studios, all replete with Greek and Roman sculptures.

To echo the world in which Cy Twombly used to live, the family-owned Galerie Chenel, based along the prestigious Quai Voltaire in Paris, specialized in Sculpture and Archaeology, has honored Sotheby's with a selection of Antique Roman marbles ranging from bas-reliefs to massive busts and delicate fragments. Visitors will enjoy the ability of the Chenel family to transform a location of history into a contemporary scenography inhabited by ancient sculptures. Gladys, Ollivier and Adrien Chenel share a decade long passion for Cy Twombly, which inspired countless of their immaculate exhibitions.

The distinguished photographer François Halard joins this exhibition with a curated selection of photographs he took of Cy Twombly in Gaeta (1994-1995) and Bassano (2021) where the artist used to live and work. Twombly and his Antique marble collection are sublimated by Halard’s search for the unspeakable given by an image.