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Absolument !

Cy Twombly, in the scribbled margins

❥ Absolument's Dictionary of Modern Art - Spending springtime learning about modern artists and art movements, together.

Feb 09, 2026
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Twice a week from February through May, I’ll be sharing a supplementary newsletter for my paid subscribers: Absolument’s Dictionary of Modern Art. Each writing will focus on an artist or movement from the modern era, mimicking entries of a dictionary or encyclopedia.

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In the scribbled margins of Cy Twombly

Cy Twombly’s oversized painting in his Rome home (above) and Cy working in his home studio (below). © Photo by Horst P. Horst/Condé Nast via Getty Images. More on his dream home at the end of this newsletter!

b. April 25, 1928, in Lexington, Virginia, USA | d. July 5, 2011, in Rome, Italy

While admiring photographs of artist Cy Twombly smoking in his patina-specked, yet posh, Roman palazzo, it’s a stretch to imagine that he was born in Virginia and named after a baseball player. Edward Parker “Cy” Twombly Jr. had this very American start to life, and as quickly as it began, he was just as swiftly enrolled in art school.

From there, he boasted a flurry of great art educational experiences: taking private art lessons at the age of twelve with a Catalonian painter, Pierre Daura; university at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; receiving a scholarship to attend the Art Students League in New York City, the place-to-be for budding modern artists; and the experimental Black Mountain College. He was submerged in it all!

I can imagine that all of this creative exposure was boiling, turning, twisting, erupting from him in every way possible.

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