Cy Twombly, an American painter, known for his giant scribbles and graffiti-styled art, has died at a hospital in Rome.

A spokesman for the Gagosian Gallery, which represented Twombly's work, said the artist died Tuesday at the age of 83. The spokesman did not specify a cause of death, but Twombly had suffered from cancer for several years.

Twombly, whose full name was Edwin Parker Twombly, was born in the eastern U.S. state of Virginia. His six-decade career spanned a number of artistic movements, but he was best known for a unique style that included oversize canvasses, abstract scribbles, incorporating words into his paintings and drawings, and his use of the color white,

Twombly had been living in Italy since the late 1950s.