ROME, July 5 (UPI) -- U.S. artist Cy Twombly, who painted a ceiling at the Louvre in Paris last year, has died in his adopted city of Rome, his representatives said. He was 83.
The BBC confirmed his death Tuesday.
A cause of death was not reported. Twombly, a Virginia native known for his abstract works, had battled cancer for several years, the British broadcaster noted.
The artist is perhaps best known for painting white graffiti on a slate gray ground during his famous "chalkboard" period of the early 1970s.
The New York Times said the only written statement Twombly made about his work came in the form of a short essay in an Italian art journal in 1957.
He explained each line he rendered was "the actual experience" of making the line.
"It does not illustrate. It is the sensation of its own realization," he said.
