Well-known American artist Edwin Parker "Cy" Twombly, Jr., best known for his large-scale abstract paintings that often looked like scribbles, has died. He was 83.

Twombly suffered from cancer for the past several years and was hospitalized a few days ago in Italy, where he's lived for the last 50 years. His photographs are currently on exhibition in France and I'm sure a rush of retrospectives and auctions are sure to follow.

[AP, image of a 2009 Twombly exhibition via Getty]