The Blackboard Painting That Set Cy Twombly's Auction Record
3 min read · 11 Feb 2025
Untitled (new York City). Image courtesy of Sotheby's
Cy Twombly, Untitled (New York City) (1968), sold for $70.53m at Sotheby's New York on November 11, 2015. The work, in oil-based house paint and wax crayon on canvas, had been traded six times before.
Twombly completed only 20 canvases in 1964 and none in 1965, following scathing reviews of a solo show at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York, which featured lush canvases. In 1966, the artist returned to form with a series of grey-ground works from which his celebrated "Blackboard" abstracts emerged.
Twombly did his miltary service a decade earlier, working as a cryptologist, studying codes and writing, including for a time in the Pentagon. The artist's signature works featuring scrawled spirals and loops grew out of that formative experience married to his longstanding interest in the Classics.
Untitled. Image courtesy of Christie's
The sale beat Twombly's previous auction record by $925,000, a 1% rise. The previous record was set by another austere abstract, Untitled (1970), which sold for $69.61m at Christie's on November 12, 2014.
A Brief History of Twombly at Auction
Sale Date | Title | Price | Record Increase | Venue | City |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2015-11-11 | Untitled (new York City) | $70.53m | 1 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2014-11-12 | Untitled | $69.61m | 221 % | Christie's | New York |
2013-11-13 | Poems To The Sea | $21.67m | 24 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2012-05-09 | Untitled (new York) | $17.44m | 15 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2011-05-11 | Unititled | $15.2m | 96 % | Christie's | New York |
2005-11-09 | Untitled -New York City | $7.75m | 52 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2002-11-12 | Untitled | $5.1m | 2 % | Sotheby's | New York |
1990-05-08 | Untitled | $5m | 193 % | Sotheby's | New York |
1989-11-08 | How long must you go | $1.71m | 89 % | Sotheby's | New York |
1988-05-02 | Untitled | $900,000 | 114 % | Sotheby's | New York |
1987-05-05 | Untitled | $420,000 | 11 % | Christie's | New York |
1985-11-05 | Untitled | $380,000 | 111 % | Sotheby's | New York |
1984-10-31 | Untitled | $180,000 | 3 % | Sotheby's | New York |
1981-11-19 | Untitled | $175,000 | 59 % | Sotheby's | New York |
1976-12-02 | Untitled | $109,800 | 174 % | Sotheby's | London |
1973-10-18 | "A" | $40,000 | - | Sotheby's | New York |
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