Image: Menil Collection, The Menil Collection
The Menil Collection will present 'The Gift of Drawing: Cy Twombly', an exhibition built around 27 works given to the museum by the Cy Twombly Foundation. According to the museum, the presentation brings together works spanning three decades of Twombly’s activity, from the 1950s through the 1980s, and highlights the range of materials and methods that shaped his practice.
The exhibition focuses on works that move across graphite, oil paint, drawing and collage, underscoring the breadth of Twombly’s approach on paper and beyond. The Menil describes the selection as one that traces recurring concerns in his art, including classical antiquity, eroticism and nature. By framing the gift as a concentrated survey rather than a single stylistic period, the museum is positioning the exhibition as a look at both the variety and continuity in Twombly’s work.
Twombly has long been associated with drawing as a central part of his artistic language, and the Menil’s exhibition title reflects that emphasis. The museum’s account of the gift highlights the way the works combine different media and techniques, suggesting how Twombly used drawing not as a fixed category but as a field for experimentation. The exhibition’s time span, from the 1950s to the 1980s, also places the works within a broad arc of his career rather than a narrow historical moment.
' The Gift of Drawing: Cy Twombly' appears in the Menil’s current August roundup, where the museum notes that it is on view through August 9. The same listing places it alongside 'Wall Drawing Series: Gladys Nilsson', also through August 9, and 'Photography from The Menil Collection: Curated by Wendy Watriss', through August 16. The Menil also identifies 'John Akomfrah: The Hour Of The Dog' as on view through October 11.
The exhibition joins a season in which the Menil is emphasizing drawings and works on paper across several presentations. In its announcement of upcoming September openings, the museum says it will open three exhibitions that illustrate the breadth and versatility of contemporary drawings and works on paper: 'Fragility' at the Menil Drawing Institute from September 10, 2026, to January 24, 2027; 'Wall Drawing Series: Jitish Kallat' at the Menil Drawing Institute from September 10, 2026, to August 8, 2027; and 'Terry Winters: Vitalized Geometry' in the Main Building from September 25, 2026, to April 4, 2027.
The Menil’s exhibition page states that 'The Gift of Drawing: Cy Twombly' is drawn from a gift to the museum by the Cy Twombly Foundation. The works in the show were selected for the way they cover multiple decades and multiple approaches, from graphite to oil paint, and for the recurring themes they hold in common. That combination of scope and intimacy gives the exhibition its structure, with the gift itself serving as the organizing principle for the presentation.
