Top 33 Quotes & Sayings by Cy Twombly

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American artist Cy Twombly.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
Cy Twombly

Edwin Parker "Cy" Twombly Jr. was an American painter, sculptor and photographer. He belonged to the generation of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.

I look at a lot of artists. I'm inspired by - I suppose I shouldn't say 'inspired,' but it's not really influenced. I am inspired. Art comes from art.
Once I said to my mother: 'You would be happy if I just kept well-dressed and had good manners,' and she said: 'What else is there?'
I have my pace and way of living, and I'm not looking for something. — © Cy Twombly
I have my pace and way of living, and I'm not looking for something.
I hate roses. Don't you? It's all right if you can hide them in a cutting garden, but I think a rose garden is the height of ick.
Graffiti is usually a protest - ink on walls - or has a reason for being naughty or aggressive.
I'm not an abstractionist completely.
My parents were from New England. It's very funny, but when I grew up, you always had to say, 'Yes, ma'am' and 'Yes, sir.'
I love my sculptures, and I was lucky I had them for 50 years because no one would look at them, and I really liked having them around.
I was brought up to think you don't talk about yourself.
I would've liked to have been Poussin, if I'd had a choice, in another time.
I used to change things in my early paintings to get the nuance or feeling I wanted, but now I plan everything in my head before I do it.
To my mind, one does not put oneself in place of the past; one only adds a new link.
Graffiti is linear, and it's done with a pencil, and it's like writing on walls.
The Mediterranean is always just white, white, white.
Virginia is a good start for Italy.
It's absurd to talk about paintings that you haven't finished.
I work in an impatient way.
I swear if I had to do this over again, I would just do the paintings and never show them.
I don't work 9 to 5.
White paint is my marble.
I would’ve liked to have been Poussin, if I’d had a choice, in another time.
And we who have always thought of happiness climbing, would feel the emotion that almost startles when happiness falls.
When I work, I work very fast, but preparing to work can take any length of time.
I never really separated painting and literature.
Graffiti is linear and it's done with a pencil, and it's like writing on walls. But in my paintings it's more lyrical. — © Cy Twombly
Graffiti is linear and it's done with a pencil, and it's like writing on walls. But in my paintings it's more lyrical.
I had my freedom and that was nice.
I listed to Tchaikovsky. He is both kitsch and profound. I love that lack of "Good taste."
It's instinctive in a certain kind of painting...It's like a nervous system. It's not described, it's happening. The feeling is going on with the task. The line is the feeling, from a soft thing, a dreamy thing, to something hard, something arid, something lonely, something ending, something beginning.
Every line is the actual experience with its own unique story.
I love my sculptures, and I was lucky I had them for 50 years because no one would look at them and I really liked having them around.
I work in waves, because I'm impatient. Because of a certain physicality, of lack of breath from standing. It has to be done and I do take liberties I wouldn't have taken before.
Paint is something that I use with my hands and do all those tactile things. I really don't like oil because you can't get back into it, or you make a mess. It's not my favourite thing - pencil is more my medium than wet paint.
I sit for two or three hours and then in 15 minutes I can do a painting, but that's part of it. You have to get ready and decide to jump up and do it; you build yourself up psychologically, and so painting has no time for brush. Brush is boring, you give it and all of a sudden it's dry, you have to go. Before you cut the thought, you know?
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