Cy Twombly and Robert Rauschenberg, whoo had already been enrolled at Black Mountain College for two semesters, met at the Art Students League in New York in spring of 1951. Following Rauschenberg‘s invitation, Twombly also attended the acclaimed art school which, due to its experimental teaching concept, exercised decisive influence on American art in the late 20th century. The list of students who attended the school‘s summer courses reads like the "who is who" of the American avant-garde. During a time when there was very little social acceptance of homosexuality, the two artists had an affair at Black Mountain College, however, Rauschenberg was married to the artist Susan Weil and even father of a young child. Cy Twombly would also get married and start a family at a later point. The two young artists met at a stage in their lives when both were still on a quest for a genuine artistic expression and their role in this world. When Twombly received a travel grant he asked Rauschenberg to accompany him. In summer that same year they would spent a few months in Italy and eventually visited Moroco. This trip provided both artists with essential impressions for the development of their own pictorial language. Even though their romance did not last long, their friendship, on both a personal and a professional level, would last on. Rauschenberg was intensively occupied with graphic art and became a source of inspiration for Twombly. Together with the printer Robert Petersen, whom Rauschenberg met at Gemini G.E.L., they founded the print studio “Untitled Press“ with the intention to create a place for artistic cooperation. Rauschenberg was convinced that mutual inspiration and impulse in collaborative work would help young artists to take their creativity to a next level. Apart from cooperative production of art, another focal point of the studio was on experimenting - trying out new techniques, using particularly choice types of paper and hand-mixed printing inks, and producing only very small editions. Cy Twombly was the first artist to visit the new print studio where he created the series of 6 lithographs offered here for which he applied his signature gestural duct directly onto the lithographic stone. In multiple visitations the webs of lines exuberantly grow across the paper in light and dark shades, in clear and dense structures, in grave and airy rhythms, providing an arresting kick-off of the artist initiative "Untitled Press". [SM]