Yves Tanguy Essay

Yves Tanguy (born 1900, died 1955) was a French Born American painter
who specialised in the Surrealist style. He was considered to represent the
purest strain of Surrealism through painting.
Unlike a lot of other Surrealist artists, he was almost entirely self taught,
although was a pupil at the Lycee Montaigne for a period of time. His
career started a little late in life, however he made very swift progressions
between styles and status in his relatively short career.
He decided to become an artist when he discovered and was profoundly
shaken by the painting Child's Skull by Giorgio De Chirico. This discovery
was what first spurred him to create his own works and pieces. His first
works are described (by the MoMA article on him, taken from Oxford
University Press) as executed in a fairly nave Expressionist style but in
which flashes of fantasy could also be glimpsed.
Then, in December 1925, he became involved and joined the Surrealist
movement, together with artists Jacques Prevert and Marcel Duhamel. This
decision greatly influenced his career and aesthetic as a painter. Before this
decision Tanguy sought to combine his influences of Chaim Soutine and
Henri Rousseau, but ditched these efforts and worked to devote himself
and his art to the theory behind Surrealism, Automatism.
He soon became a leading figure within the movement and was held to and
compared to other artists such as Hans Arp, Max Ernst, Andre' Masson,
Joan Miro and Picasso.
Tanguy's first exhibition was held in May to June 1927, at the Galerie
Surrealiste in Paris. During this time, Andre Breton gave Yves a contract to
paint twelve pieces a year, however with his set income, he painted less
and only produced eight pieces in total for Breton.
He used a mixture of fluid bases for these works, and his painting was
random and automatic, Tanguy rarely used preliminary or base sketches

for his pieces and as he theorised that creativity and spontaneity were
limited when using base sketches. The only time he used preliminary
sketches was in his Free Flow period around 1930-31. Yves Tanguy
mostly used oil on canvas, however some of his works were created using
pen and pencil on paper, and through the technique of etching.
Some say that his preference for sombre backgrounds comes from his
Breton origins.
In December 1930, at an early screening of Bunuel and Dali's L'age D'Or,
right-wing activists went to the lobby where the film was being screened,
and destroyed multiple artworks by Dali, Joan Miro, Man Ray, Yves'
Tanguy and others.
I can't seem to find any form of research of studies on how Yves Tanguy's
work was received, although judging on the incident where some of the
surrealist artists paintings were destroyed by right-wing activists, I can
assume that right-wing activists greatly disliked surrealism in general.
We can also assume, that because surrealism challenged the definition of
art, there was probably controversy within the artistic community, and that
it faced opposition from other artistic communities who disliked the
change or theory behind surrealism as a movement.
Throughout the 1930's Tanguy adopted the bohemian lifestyle of the
struggling artist, leading to the failure of his first marriage, however, he
then met Kay Sage, another Surrealist artist, who later on became his
second wife. Then, in the outbreak of World War Two, Sage moved back to
her birth place New York, and Yves Tanguy, judged unfit for military duty,
followed.
He would spend the rest of his life in the united states.
This changed the style of his work somewhat too, in 1942 Tanguy
participated in The Artists in Exile show at the Pierre Matisse gallery in
New York, where he exhibited regularly until the 1950's.
Back in 1947, his work was also included in the exhibition Le'
Surrealisme en 1947, organized by Marcel DuChamp at the Galerie

Meight in Paris. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in

1948.
The following year, he shared an exhibition with Kay Sage at the
Wadsworth Athenium in Hartford and appeared in Hans Richter's film 8 x
8.
A retrospective of his work was held at the museum of Modern Art in New
York eight months after his death on January 15th, 1955, in Woodbury,
where he and Kay Sage had settled down.

Piece Comparison 1927 1954

Extinction of Useless Lights - Yves Tanguy, 1927

The characteristics described in Yves Tanguy's earlier work are all present
within this piece, the sombre backgrounds, the amoeba like forms and the
general alien-like landscape, even the brighter colours and tones in this
piece are muted, and draw the eye into the eery atmosphere and dark
shadows, as opposed to coming toward the eye, the piece sinks and shrinks
away from it, as if hiding a secret. This piece really captures the nave
playfulness and insanity of Tanguy's first forage into Surrealist
automatism.

Multiplication of the Arcs - Yves Tanguy, 1954

Now this piece, is much later on in Yves Tanguy's career, towards the end
of his life actually, and while similar in subject matter and landscape, the
colour is slightly different, and instead of sinking away from the eye, the
colours flash in front of them, drawing the eye to the piece, the use of
bright, contrasting colours and the sheer amount of subjects or forms in
this piece are the most distinct and notable differences. The forms in this
piece are also more modern and geometric, more close to the metal and
glass buildings we see in cities today, this could be a reflection of his
experience in America, and the type of buildings they had in cities there.

I haven't been able to find any research or evidence that states that his
artwork was directly affected by the onset of the second world war,
however his move to Woodbury with his wife Kay Sage was mostly due to
him being judged unfit for military duty.