id: 156577 accession number: 1992.283 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1992.283 updated: 2023-01-11 07:04:57.043000 Untitled, c. 1939. Yves Tanguy (French, 1900–1955). Gouache with some incised lines drawn in metal point; sheet: 31.9 x 24.6 cm (12 9/16 x 9 11/16 in.); secondary support: 44.6 x 36.6 cm (17 9/16 x 14 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Lockwood Thompson 1992.283 © Estate of Yves Tanguy / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York title: Untitled title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1939 creation date earliest: 1934 creation date latest: 1944 current location: creditline: Bequest of Lockwood Thompson copyright: © Estate of Yves Tanguy / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York --- culture: France, 20th century technique: Gouache with some incised lines drawn in metal point department: Drawings collection: DR - French type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Yves Tanguy (French, 1900–1955) - artist --- measurements: Sheet: 31.9 x 24.6 cm (12 9/16 x 9 11/16 in.); Secondary Support: 44.6 x 36.6 cm (17 9/16 x 14 7/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: off-white (probably wove) paper mounted on gray board watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: inscribed by artist, lower right, in black gouache: A Madame Jeanne Bucher, / avec La gratitude / d'yves tanguy. 39 translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Selected Acquisitions opening date: 1993-02-09T05:00:00 Selected Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 9-April 11, 1993). title: French Drawings from the Collection opening date: 1994-12-13T05:00:00 French Drawings from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 13, 1994-March 12, 1995). title: Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2000-08-27T00:00:00 Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Surrealism in Perspective. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 3, 1979 - January 6, 1980). * Contemporary Drawings. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 13 - August 3, 1975). * Exposition Yves Tanguy. Galerie Jeanne Bucher-Myrbor, Paris (May 17 - May 30, 1938).
Possibly included. --- PROVENANCE Jeanne Bucher, Paris date: probably 1939-? footnotes: *
inscribed to her by Tanguy
citations: (possibly Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris, probably sold to Lockwood Thompson) date: ?-? footnotes: citations: Lockwood Thompson [1901-1992], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: by 1979-1992 footnotes: *
Thompson may have purchased the work directly from the gallery since he frequently bought from Paris and London galleries -- Galerie Jeanne Bucher owned other works by Tanguy as late as 1963 (according to Kay Sage's catalogue raisonné of that year); since the Cleveland drawing does not appear in the 1963 catalogue, Thompson may have owned it by that time, unbeknown to Tanguy's wife, Kay Sage.
citations: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1992- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: This drawing was made around the time that Yves Tanguy fled Europe for the United States, in November 1939, following the outbreak of World War II. digital description: Yves Tanguy developed an interest in the surrealist movement during the early decades of the 20th century, creating vague but evocative and meticulously rendered images that suggested dreams and the subconscious. Using smoothly applied color, Tanguy painted enigmatic biomorphic forms that often suggest human or animal figures and cast dramatic shadows throughout the composition. These shapes are found in the present drawing, within a sparse setting. The gray background tones suggest underwater depths, and could relate to the artist's experience in the Merchant Navy during World War I. wall description: Like the Belgian artist René Magritte, whose watercolor Utopia is on view nearby, Tanguy painted in an illusionistic mode to create his Surrealist pictures. With its strange biomorphic forms (related more to animal or plant forms than to geometric shapes) that cast stark shadows against the fluidly applied background, this untitled composition exhibits characteristic features of Tanguy's personal style. Especially for today's viewers, accustomed to photographs and computer-generated images of outer space, the vast and horizonless terrain with its scattered rocks evokes a lunar landscape. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Lawrence, Michael G. Surrealism in Perspective. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1979. page number: Mentioned: p. 34 url: "Catalogue." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 1 (January 1993): 65-73. page number: Mentioned: p. 75, no. 317 url: DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. page number: Mentioned: p. 11, pp. 262-263, 298; Reproduced: p. 263 url: --- IMAGES