An untitled work on paper by Cy Twombly is to cross the block at a contemporary art evening sale at Christie's in London on October 6.

The piece dates to 1972 and closely resembles the series of Bolsena paintings Twombly worked on in the late 1960s.

Cy Twombly executed the work in pencil and graphite

During this period he was heavily inspired by the French symbolist poet Stephen Mallarme (1842-1898) and often included snatches of his text in his work.

This painting is based around a deconstructed extract from Mallarme's Autre Eventail (Another Fan).

Twombly responds to Mallarme's request to "hold my wing within your hand" with "What Wing can be Held".

It's valued at around £1m-1.5m ($1.3m-1.9m).

Twombly's price point has advanced dramatically over the last couple of years.

His auction record is now $70.5m, set for a work from his Blackboard series at Sotheby's New York last year.

Kazuo Shiraga's Choji Haten (Unprecedented Leap) is also valued at £1m-1.5m ($1.3m-1.9m).

Shiraga painted using his hands, feet and often his entire body.

His goal was to merge himself with the canvas - as Christie's explains: "By eliminating all formal constraints from his art, Shiraga allowed body and material to unite in their most elementary states."

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