Cy Twombly

Cy Twombly is a recurring but lightly sketched presence in Andy Warhol’s diary, appearing in accounts of a 1978 dinner and a Whitney exhibition opening. The entries locate him within New York’s intertwined art and social worlds, but offer no sustained portrait of his personality or of his relationship with Warhol.

Dinner at the Palace

On November 21, 1978, Thomas Ammann invited Warhol to dinner with Twombly, then added Bob Colacello to the party. When Ammann asked where they should eat, Warhol proposed the Palace, a restaurant in the Sovereign building on 59th Street that had been discussed in the papers for its expense. Warhol estimated the cost at $300 per person; Ammann laughed and accepted the suggestion.

Ammann also invited Barbara Allen, who arrived with Taki Theodoracopulos. The restaurant’s presentation struck Warhol as ostentatious: a crocheted window curtain, chandeliers above every table, gold-trimmed dishes, and a large staff serving a party that appeared to be the only one in the room. The meal ran to eight courses. When the bill arrived at $914, Ammann seemed genuinely surprised, and his earlier joking about the expense stopped. Twombly is named as a guest, but the diary does not record his reaction to the restaurant or the bill.

The Whitney opening

In April 1979, Warhol noted that everyone was in town for Twombly’s opening. He was surprised not to have been invited to a dinner Earl McGrath and Camilla McGrath gave for the artist. The omission did not keep him away from the exhibition: after persuading himself to go, he took a cab through the rain to the Whitney, paying two dollars for the ride.

David Whitney had offered to pick him up with Philip Johnson, but Warhol said he was running late; Whitney replied that they always went on time. Warhol nevertheless made it to the event and judged the exhibition great. His account gives the opening a double social frame: Twombly’s work drew the art world together, while the dinner invitation list registered who was included and who was not.

A figure seen through occasions

Across these entries, Twombly is identified through his exhibitions and the people who gathered around them. At the Palace he is part of a small dinner party organized by Thomas Ammann; at the Whitney, his opening brings visitors to the museum and prompts a separate dinner hosted by the McGraths. Warhol’s attention falls less on Twombly’s speech or conduct than on the settings, expense, invitations, and arrangements surrounding him. The result is a fragmentary portrait of an artist whose presence is clear, but whose private character remains outside the diary’s view.