This first biography of Cy Twombly, one of the most important and least understood American artists of the 20th Century, explores the enduring mysteries of his work and life.
Joshua Rivkin's poems and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Slate, The Southern Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and Best New Poets. A former FulbrightScholar in Rome, Italy, as well as a Stegner Fellow in poetry, he has received awards from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and Ucross Foundation. He teaches creative writing for Stanford's Continuing Studies and lives in Salt Lake City.
"A creative portal into the life of the enigmantic, reclusive,
modernist painter... Rivkin's first book--impeccably researched,
lavishly and lovingly written, insightful and discerning--is a joy
to read." --*starred* KIRKUS REVIEWS "Rivkin brings his sensibility
and prowess as a poet and essayist to this unusually reflective,
stealthily dramatic inquiry into the enigmatic life and work of
artist Cy Twombly... An extraordinarily involving, gorgeously
written chronicle of art, controversy, fame, and the perils of
biography." --*starred* BOOKLIST
"Reviled when young, revered when old, the elusive Twombly
surprisingly emerges in this fascinating biography, which traces
the difficulties of tracking down the man as thoroughly as it fills
in the blurred, half-erased likeness. This is the record of a
heroic journey of discovery."
--acclaimed author and memoirist Edmund White
"Joshua Rivkin's sensitive eye and investigative ambition expand
and enrich our understanding of Cy Twombly's genius in this
tenderly rendered biography."--Rachel Corbett, author of You Must
Change Your Life
"So much more than a study of the life and work of the famously
guarded Twombly. At once candid and tender, meditative and
unsparing . . . this book is a gift to Twombly devotees and
newcomers alike--as imbued with beauty, genius, and vitality as the
artist's work that is its subject." --Lacy Johnson, author of The
Other Side
"Joshua Rivkin's revelatory Chalk performs an archaeology of a life
and explores the layers below those we think we already know (or
maybe those we never even dreamed existed)."
--R. Tripp Evans, author of Grant Wood: A Life
"This book is a network of glances, an architecture of mirrors and
hallways, all in pursuit of a 'figure in the carpet'--the
mysterious Twombly and the haunting scrawl of his beautiful
paintings." --Alexander Nemerov, Chair of the Department of Art and
Art History at Stanford University and author of Soulmaker: The
Times of Lewis Hine
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