YVES TANGUY | Sans titre

Ambassador & Mme Henri Hoppenot, Paris
Galerie Natalie Seroussi, Paris (acquired by 1985) 
Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York (acquired by 1993) 
Galleria Blu, Milan (acquired by 1998) 
Sale: Il Ponte Casa d'Aste, Milan, 10th June 2015, lot 340
Galerie Zlotowski, Paris
Private Collection, Europe 
Acquired from the above by the present owner                                         

Paris, Galerie des Cahiers d'Art, Gouaches de Tanguy et Sculpture de Brauner, 1947

Pierre Matisse, Yves Tanguy un recueil de ses œuvres, New York, 1963, no. 269, illustrated p. 122 (as dating from 1940)
Patrick Waldberg, Yves Tanguy, Brussels, 1977, illustrated p. 221

Executed on black wove paper, not laid down. The sheet is affixed to the mount at two places along the verso of the upper edge. The left and right edges are slightly unevenly cut and the sheet is slightly undulating. There is a faint flattened crease to the lower left corner. This work is in overall very good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Yves Tanguy’s remarkable compositions resist exact definition and analysis, depicting a dream-like world of the unconscious peopled by amorphous shapes that co-exist in a curious harmony. Almost entirely self-taught, Tanguy commenced his career in the navy before a particular event in 1923 – perhaps apocryphal – precipitated his desire to be an artist. Tanguy is reputed to have glimpsed a painting by Giorgio de Chirico in the window of a gallery as he passed by in a bus, and the discovery revolutionised his life, leading him to become a leading light of the Surrealist movement, one whose art was to be particularly championed by such luminaries as André Breton and Peggy Guggenheim, amongst others. Dating from 1946, the present work was created when Tanguy was in the United States - a move he had made in order to escape the political turmoil in France - and where he was living alongside fellow Surrealist artist Kay Sage (later to be his wife). Biomorphic forms float within a striking dark background, imbued with an extraordinary sensation of three-dimensionality. At first seemingly entirely abstract in conception, these shapes arguably recall the rock formations of the Breton coast near Locranan, where Tanguy spent his childhood. James Thrall Soby noted the long-lasting significance of this particular landscape on the artist’s imagination: ‘The fields near Locranan are peopled with menirs and dolmens from prehistoric times and these, subjectively transformed, are frequent properties in the dream world Tanguy celebrated as an adult painter. Moreover, he never forgot the vast plateaux of the Brittany midland nor the submarine landscape of its rocky shores, where objects float hesitantly in the underwater light, shifting with the depth and tide’ (quoted in: Simon Wilson, Surrealist Painting, London, 1991, p. 80).

Simon Wilson argues that Tanguy ‘represents a unique and highly successful synthesis of the two main branches of Surrealist painting, the automatic and the oneiric’ (ibid. p. 78). Whilst the ‘oneiric’ school was represented by the exacting precision of artists such as De Chirico, the ‘automatic’ world was championed by Joan Miró and Jean Arp in their celebration of abstract forms. In its exacting delineation of indefinable forms, Sans titre stands as a superb exemplar of this pioneering creative language.



At this time it is the intention of the Tanguy committee to include this work in the forthcoming revised Yves Tanguy Catalogue raisonné.