Black Mountain College ©RobMcdonald

For the last twenty years of his life, Cy Twombly returned often to Lexington, his hometown in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. During extended visits, he created significant works in modest rented studios. Otherwise, he filled his days observing the rhythms of the tiny college town, taking long reflective drives in the countryside, and spending time with a small circle of acquaintances. One of those was photographer Rob McDonald. STUDIO NOTES features photographs McDonald made inside Twombly’s final storefront studio in Lexington in 2007-08, as well as images made at site of Black Mountain College where he made some of his earliest important work. What emerges is an intimate study of ordinary spaces that quietly sheltered the genius of one of the world’s great artists.

Black Mountain Images:

The Studies Building (circa 1940-1941) viewed across Lake Eden, on the site of Black Mountain College, near Asheville, North Carolina, USA, October 2009. ©RobMcDonald
Studio in the Studies Building, on the site of Black Mountain College, near Asheville, North Carolina, USA, October 2009. ©RobMcDonald
Black Mountain ©RobMcDonald
The Quiet House, on the site of Black Mountain College, near Asheville, North Carolina, USA, October 2009. ©RobMcDonald
Black Mountain, VA ©RobMcDonald

Cy Twombly’s Studio, Lexington, VA images:

Still life with white sculpture, Polaroids, eyeglasses, and painted canvas in Cy Twombly’s Lexington, Virginia, studio, 2007. ©RobMcDonald
Still life with sculptures in Cy Twombly’s Lexington, Virginia, studio, 2007. ©RobMcDonald
Still life with painted canvases in Cy Twombly’s Lexington, Virginia, studio, 2007. ©RobMcDonald
Still life with paints in Cy Twombly’s Lexington, Virginia, studio, 2007. ©RobMcDonald
Still life with Polaroid camera and painting s in Cy Twombly’s Lexington, Virginia, studio, 2007. ©RobMcDonald
Still life with white sculpture and text in Cy Twombly’s Lexington, Virginia, studio, 2007. ©RobMcDonald
Still life with chair in Cy Twombly’s Lexington, Virginia, studio, 2007. ©RobMcDonald
Still life with white sculpture in Cy Twombly’s Lexington, Virginia, studio, 2007. ©RobMcDonald
Still life in Cy Twombly’s Lexington, Virginia, studio, 2007. ©RobMcDonald
Still life with slippers in Cy Twombly’s Lexington, Virginia, studio, 2007. ©RobMcDonald
Still life with white sculpture in Cy Twombly’s Lexington, Virginia, studio, 2007. ©RobMcDonald

BIO:

Rob McDonald is an artist and writer who has been living a double life as an English professor and Associate Dean of the Faculty at the Virginia Military Institute for a number of years. His work has appeared in such journals as Southern Cultures, StorySouth, South Atlantic Review, The North Carolina Literary Review, and Shenandoah. He was awarded a 2019-2020 individual artist fellowship from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. His solo exhibition STUDIO NOTES: My Time with Cy was a feature presentation of FotoWien 2023.
Website: robmcdonaldphotography.com

Twitter: @RobMcDonaldVA

Instagram: gourdtree

SPECS:

24,5 x 18,5 cm, 88 pages
67 illustrations, black and white
Softcover with flaps
Published by Verlag Walther König, Köln, with generous support from the Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio, Rome
2024

The collector’s edition is available only through the Anzenberger Gallery’s Bookshop (Vienna) or my website.

The trade edition is available through the Anzenberger Gallery’s bookshop, D.A.P, or bookstores using the ISBN 978-3-7533-0711-4.