Cy Twombly (1928-2011) was an American painter, sculptor and photographer, widely recognized as one of the most important and influential artists of the 20th century. Born in Lexington, Virginia, Twombly studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Art Students League in New York.
Twombly's style was characterized by large-scale, gestural paintings that incorporated calligraphic and graffiti-like marks, often accompanied by scrawled words and phrases. His work was influenced by a wide range of sources, including classical mythology, literature, and the natural world.
Twombly's paintings and sculptures are held in numerous collections around the world, and he has been the subject of major retrospectives at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. He died in Rome, Italy, in 2011 at the age of 83.