US artist Cy Twombly has died in a hospital in Rome, at age 83, the director of the Lambert collection in southern France told AFP.
The artist, who was living in Italy and had suffered with cancer for several years, was hospitalised a few days ago, according to Eric Mezil.
An exposition of his photographs opened last month at the Lambert collection in Avignon.
Mezil, who knew Twombly for 20 years, said he had bought a train ticket to visit him next week.
He last saw him in May, he added, when the artist "was doing fine."
A friend of fellow US artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, Twombly had lived in Italy for 50 years in a town between Rome and Naples.
Agencies