Tanguy - ProfilesArchive

About Me

I am Yves Tanguy I was born January 5th, 1900 in France. I was a merchant seaman until I saw the painting of deChirico. I was then impelled to take up painting and in 1925 I joined the Surrealist group. In 1939 I emigrated to the USA, to be with the American Surrealist painter Kay Sage. I stayed until my death in 1955. My works are painted in a scrupulous technique reminiscent of that of DalÃ, but my imagery is highly distinctive, featuring half marine and half lunar landscapes in which amorphous nameless objects proliferate in a spectral dream-space .I am very much alone in my work, I am almost jealous of it.The painting develops before my eyes, unfolding its surprises as it progresses. It is this which gives me the sense of complete liberty, and for this reason I am incapable of forming a plan or making a sketch beforehand.

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

I would like to meet myself someday.Yves Tanguy The worlds are breaking in my head Blown by the brainless wind That comes from afar Swollen with dusk and dust And hysterical rainThe fading cries of the light Awaken the endless desert Engrossed in its tropical slumber Enclosed by the dead grey oceans Enclasped by the arms of the nightThe worlds are breaking in my head Their fragments are crumbs of despair The food of the solitary damned Who await the gross tumult of turbulent Days bringing change without end.The worlds are breaking in my head The fuming future sleeps no more For their seeds are beginning to grow To creep and to cry midst the Rocks of the deserts to comePlanetary seed Sown by the grotesque wind Whose head is so swollen with rumours Whose hands are so urgent with tumours Whose feet are so deep in the sand.David Gascoyne