CY TWOMBLY (B. 1928)

Before 1967, Cy Twombly had only made five prints. The thirteen works created in 1967 and early 1968 were result of a visit with Robert Rauschenberg to Tatyana Grosman's ULAE print shop. For Untitled II (B. 11), Twombly approached printmaking in a similar style to his Gray Paintings (executed 1967-1971). Often these are described as intensely personal yet mute scribbles or graffiti on blackboards or public walls. To create the field, he used fine grain aquatint. Next, the artist applied acid directly to the plate--a technique known as spit-bite--in crude but lyrical rolling calligraphic lines. The acid bit or etched the traces of his marks on the plate. While he finished the plate in 1967, the ULAE did not have impressions pulled until 1974. When they did, the printers skillfully fully applied subtle gray ink to draw out the nuances of the masterpiece of Twombly's graphic oeuvre.