Yves Tanguy

Artistic Profile

Style

Approach

<cite index="45-9,45-10,45-11">Self-taught, joined Surrealists 1925; works consistently featured flat landscapes resembling seaside or submarine spaces with rock and sand formations; practiced pure form of Automatism, spontaneous work not under conscious control</cite>

Movement

Surrealism

Signature Characteristics

<cite index="3-18,3-19,3-20">Painted timeless, dreamlike landscapes with completely invented forms having no reference to reality - ambiguous forms resembling marine invertebrates or rock formations painted with painstaking detail, set in barren, brightly lit landscapes with infinite horizon</cite>

Influences

Primary

Giorgio de Chirico (metaphysical painting)

Additional

Hieronymus Bosch, Lucas Cranach, Paolo Uccello (Renaissance masters), Jean Arp, Dada, Precisionism

Themes and Subjects

Subject Matter

<cite index="44-3,44-8">Sparse abstract landscapes populated by biomorphic shapes painted in somber hues - hazy sea creatures, aquatic vegetation, initially inspired by love of nature and sea</cite>

Landscape Sources

<cite index="15-12,44-4">Influence of ancient megaliths of childhood Brittany, geological features of Tunisia from military service, rocky coast of native Brittany with Neolithic structures, formations from trips to Tunisia and American Southwest</cite>

Psychological Content

<cite index="65-28,65-29,65-30,65-31">Preoccupied with dreams and unconscious; naturalistic precision depicting mind and contents; key contribution - more vividly than any artist before him, imagined and depicted unconscious as a place</cite>

Movements and Periods

Legacy

<cite index="9-6,9-7,9-8">Rejection of narrative in favor of psychological resonance helped expand possibilities of nonrepresentational art; as core figure in Surrealism's second generation, contributed to movement's transatlantic evolution and postwar legacy; work remains touchstone for artists exploring unconscious, cosmic, and ineffable</cite>

Early 1920s

<cite index="78-14,78-15,78-16">Early pictures reveal hungry pseudo-primitivism, awkwardness of execution, naive figuration - forced innocence; narrative of murder and infantile sexuality in works like 'Fantomas' (1925-26)</cite>

Surrealist Role

<cite index="4-1">Work considered by André Breton to epitomise the movement; in 1940s powerfully influenced generation of young artists including Roberto Matta, Wolfgang Paalen, Esteban Francés</cite>

Mature 1927 1939

<cite index="15-11">By late 1920s unmistakable style congealed; 1927 'Mama, Papa is Wounded!' exemplar with flat distant horizon, blank sky, scattering of unearthly outcroppings and growths</cite>

Influence on Others

Sculptors

<cite index="2-1,65-4,65-18">Influence noted in sculptures of Hans Arp, David Hare, Isamu Noguchi and work of Roberto Matta, Wolfgang Paalen, Esteban Francés</cite>

Surrealists

<cite index="2-3,65-1,65-14">Early works anticipated much of later Surrealism, most visibly in Salvador Dalí compositions</cite>

Popular Culture

<cite index="1-34,1-35">Paintings influenced style of 1980 French animated movie 'Le Roi et l'oiseau' by Paul Grimault and Prévert; influenced science fiction cover art of illustrator Richard Powers</cite>

Abstract Expressionists

<cite index="9-5">Visionary landscapes left lasting imprint on abstract expressionism development, particularly influencing Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still who admired ability to evoke emotional depth through form and space</cite>

Critical Positioning

<cite index="44-10,63-7">Solemnity permeates work, in contrast to playfulness of many fellow Surrealists; among most transcendently pure surrealists</cite>

American Period 1940 1955

<cite index="3-14,15-13">After move to United States used more colourful palette, gave objects more metallic appearance; later paintings inspired by natural and built environment of United States</cite>. <cite index="67-4,67-5,67-6">Under Kay Sage's influence: forms moved closer to viewer, started using tall figures, bubbly shapes calcified into hard structures, palette faded to Sage's demure olives, khakis, grays</cite>

Techniques and Mediums

Precision

<cite index="65-26,65-29">Self-taught but enormously skilled, painted hyper-real world with exacting precision; naturalistic precision set him apart from other Surrealists</cite>

Automatism

<cite index="2-4">Pioneering work with automatism (unconscious painting) admired by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and other American artists who shared fascination with unconscious, emulated gestural freedom of atmospheric backgrounds</cite>