Catherine Lacey Revisits Cy Twombly’s ‘Say Goodbye, Catullus’
Revisited is a series in which writers look back on a work of art they first encountered long ago. Here, Catherine Lacey remembers her first visit to Houston’s Cy Twombly Gallery. CY TWOMBLY, UNTITLED (SAY GOODBYE, CATULLUS, TO THE SHORES OF ASIA MINOR) (INSTALLATION VIEW), 1994, OIL, ACRYLIC, OIL STICK, CRAYON, AND GRAPHITE ON THREE CANVASES 157 1/2″ × 624″. COURTESY THE MENIL COLLECTION, HOUSTON. If one accepts that love is at least one part disaster—if one accepts that love cannot be effectively diagnosed or measured—if one accepts that a person cannot predict or control when such a feeling might take root—if one accepts that a person in love frequently behaves in a manner that others see as irrational—and if one accepts that it is difficult, if not altogether impossible, to explain those feelings—then it may be possible for a woman of twenty-two to be in love, however briefly, with an entire building and all of its contents. Once, I was an art student living in post-Katrina New Orl