Cy Twombly, the legendary American artist and sculptor whose sprawling abstract scribbles reinvigorated abstract art in the 1950s and 60s, passed away in Rome on Tuesday. He was 83-years-old. A close friend and contemporary  of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, Twombly became a prominent figure in the New York art movement bookended by Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. The artist is perhaps best known for his calligraphic paintings during that period that resembled bathroom graffiti on tan or white backgrounds, he later ventured into sculptures from Western mythology made of found objects or bronze cast in plaster. His friend Eric Mezil told the AFP that the artist had been treated for cancer for several years but "was doing fine" in May, when they last saw each other. Mezil was supposed to visit Twombly next week.

Twombly's most recent work has been featured at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2009…

The Salle des Bronzes in the Louvre museum…

And the Gagosian Gallery in Paris…

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Adam Clark Estes