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Cy Twombly’s Drawing and Discovery

A gift of 121 previously unseen works anchors a new exhibition at the Menil Collection, illuminating the full arc of one of contemporary art's most misunderstood and mythologized figures.

John and Dominique de Menil, for whom the venerable Houston-based Menil Collection is named, had a longstanding relationship with Cy Twombly dating back to the 1960s when they began collecting the idiosyncratic artist’s work. Today, the museum houses the largest Twombly collection in North America, including a freestanding gallery designed by Renzo Piano and dedicated to the artist. Last year, the collection grew substantially when the Cy Twombly Foundation donated 121 works, none of which had been previously shown in the U.S., 27 of which compose “The Gift of Drawing: Cy Twombly,” on through August 9.

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The works span roughly four decades, from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s, and include some from 2005, six years before the artist’s death. Among them is a collage titled Narcissus (1975), which, at first glance, appears to be just the name written in crayon on a smudgy white surface. But a closer look reveals two pieces of paper, constituting a collage in the technical sense, with the name inscribed twice, one above the other, as if a reflection, thereby gesturing to the titular mythological hunter entranced by his own countenance.

Narcissus resembles a drawing more than a collage, in some ways fitting with the bulk of the gift, which is........

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