Interlocking organic shapes of dull and sharp appendages support one another like a monument in Tanguy's characteristic space. Having met the poet André Breton in 1925, Tanguy remained true to the Surrealist movement throughout his work, borrowing shapes and motifs from Jean Arp and Joan Miró.
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Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): YVES TANGUY 44
[Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1944–58; stock no. 1506; purchased on November 15, 1944, for $600, as "Ma vie blanche et noire," from the artist; sold on March 8, 1958 to Gelman]; Jacques and Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1958–his d. 1986); Natasha Gelman, Mexico City and New York (1986–d. 1998; her bequest to MMA)
New York. Pierre Matisse Gallery. "Homage to the 'Salon d'Automne' 1944, 'Salon de la Libération'," December 9–31, 1944, no. 26 (as "Ma vie blanche et noire").
New York. Pierre Matisse Gallery. "Yves Tanguy, Paintings," May 8–June 2, 1945, no. 12 (as "Ma vie blanche et noire").
New York. Pierre Matisse Gallery. "Yves Tanguy," November 5–30, 1946, no. 18 (as "Ma vie blanche et noire").
San Francisco. California Palace of the Legion of Honor. "2nd Annual Exhibition of Painting," November 19, 1947–January 4, 1948, unnumbered cat. (p. 42; as "Ma vie blanche et noire," lent by the Pierre Matisse Gallery).
Beverly Hills. Copley Galleries. "Yves Tanguy: Paintings and Gouaches," November 16–December 1948, no. 15 (as "Ma vie blanche et noire").
Hartford, Conn. Wadsworth Atheneum. "Yves Tanguy, Kay Sage," August 10–September 28, 1954, not in catalogue [see Refs. Levy 1954, Stuhlman 2011].
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Yves Tanguy," September 6–October 30, 1955, unnumbered cat. (p. 49; as "My Life White and Black [Ma vie blanche et noire]," lent by the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York).
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Dada, Surrealism, and Their Heritage," March 27–June 9, 1968, no. 319 (lent by Mr. and Mrs. Jacques Gelman, Mexico City).
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Dada, Surrealism, and Their Heritage," July 16–September 8, 1968, no. 319.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Dada, Surrealism, and Their Heritage," October 19–December 8, 1968, no. 319.
New York. Acquavella Galleries, Inc. "Yves Tanguy," November 7–December 7, 1974, no. 35 (lent by Mr. and Mrs. Jacques Gelman).
Paris. Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne. "Yves Tanguy: Rétrospective 1925–1955," June 17–September 27, 1982, no. 97 (as "Ma vie blanche et noire," lent by M. et Mme Jacques Gelman, Mexico).
Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. "Yves Tanguy: Retrospektive 1925–1955," October 17, 1982–January 2, 1983, no. 85 (as "Ma vie blanche et noire [Mein Leben weiss und schwarz]," lent by M und Mme Jacques Gelman, Mexico).
New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "Yves Tanguy: A Retrospective," January 21–February 27, 1983, brochure no. 97 (as "My Life, White and Black [Ma vie blanche et noire]," lent by a private collection, New York).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Twentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," December 12, 1989–April 1, 1990, unnumbered cat. (p. 234).
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Twentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection," April 19–July 15, 1990, unnumbered cat.
Martigny. Fondation Pierre Gianadda. "De Matisse à Picasso: Collection Jacques et Natasha Gelman," June 18–November 1, 1994, unnumbered cat. (p. 258).
Edward Alden Jewell. "A Drawing Survey: Contemporary Work Shown at Academy—Homage to France—Other Events." New York Times (December 17, 1944), p. X4.
Germain Bazin. "L'École de Paris à New York." L'Amour de l'art 25, numéro spécial (July 1945), ill. p. 41.
Margaret Breuning. "Surrealist Disillusion of Yves Tanguy." Art Digest 19 (May 15, 1945), p. 9.
"Yves Tanguy: Nouvelles peintures." Cahiers d'art 20–21 (1945–46), ill. p. 387, lists it in the collection of the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York.
André Breton. Yves Tanguy. New York, 1946, ill. p. 23.
Alexander Fried. "2nd Annual Exhibition." Bulletin of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor 5 (December 1947), p. 62, ill. p. 61.
Tiger's Eye no. 3 (March 1948), ill. p. 104, list it in the collection of the Pierre Matisse Gallery.
James Thrall Soby. "Inland in the Subconscious: Yves Tanguy." Magazine of Art 42 (January 1949), pp. 6–7, fig. 7.
Julien Levy. "Tanguy, Connecticut, Sage." Art News 53 (September 1954), ill. p. 25 (installation photo, Exh. Hartford 1954).
Robert M. Coates. "The Art Galleries: Tanguy and de Chirico." New Yorker (September 24, 1955), p. 159.
James Thrall Soby. Yves Tanguy. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1955, p. 18, ill. p. 49.
Patrick Waldberg. "Yves Tanguy." L'Œil no. 95 (November 1962), ill. p. 52.
Kay Sage et al. Yves Tanguy: Un Recueil de ses oeuvres / A Summary of His Works. New York, 1963, p. 151, no. 328, ill.
William S. Rubin. Dada and Surrealist Art. New York, 1968, p. 374, fig. 397.
John Ashbery. "Yves Tanguy, Geometer of Dreams." Art in America 62 (November–December 1974), p. 73 [revised version of Ref. Ashbery 1974, Acquavella Galleries].
"Nouvelles des arts. New York: Rétrospective Tanguy." L'Œil no. 232 (November 1974), ill. p. 57.
John Ashbery. Yves Tanguy. Exh. cat., Acquavella Galleries, Inc. New York, 1974, unpaginated, no. 35, ill. (color).
Patrick Waldberg. Yves Tanguy. Brussels, 1977, ill. pp. 34, 302 (reproduces Ref. Bazin 1945).
"Une aussi longue absence." Connaissance des arts no. 365/366 (July–August 1982), ill. p. 14.
René Micha. "La Première rétrospective de Tanguy en Europe." Art International 25 (November–December 1982), ill. p. 47.
Stuart Preston. "Paris, Beaubourg: Yves Tanguy." Burlington Magazine 124 (September 1982), p. 575, fig. 24.
Roland Penrose inYves Tanguy: Rétrospective 1925–1955. Ed. Agnès Angliviel de La Beaumelle and Florence Chauveau. Exh. cat., Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne. Paris, 1982, p. 28 [German ed., Munich, 1982, p. 30; reprinted in Exh. New York 1983 brochure, p. 13, ill. p. 12].
Agnès Angliviel de La Beaumelle and Florence Chauveau, ed. Yves Tanguy: Rétrospective 1925–1955. Exh. cat., Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne. Paris, 1982, pp. 138–39, no. 97, ill. (color), ill. p. 222 (installation photo, Exh. New York 1946).
Katharina Schmidt inYves Tanguy. Ed. Katharina Schmidt. Exh. cat., Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. Munich, 1982, pp. 256, 261, no. 85, ill. pp. 207 (color), 271 (installation photo, Exh. New York 1946).
Barbara Catoir. "Ausstellungen. Deutschland. Baden-Baden, Staatliche Kunsthalle Ausstellung: Yves Tanguy." Pantheon 41 (January/February/March 1983), ill. p. 45.
Gordon Onslow Ford. Yves Tanguy and Automatism. Inverness, Calif., 1983, ill. p. 21.
Sabine Rewald inTwentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, pp. 233–34, 315, ill. (color and bw).
William S. Lieberman inTwentieth-Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, p. 15.
John Ashbery inTwentieth–Century Modern Masters: The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection. Ed. William S. Lieberman. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, p. 51.
Martica Sawin. "1940–1955. Les années américaines." Yves Tanguy. Quimper, France, 2001, colorpl. 92.
Roland Penrose. "Yves Tanguy." Arte y Parte 72 (December 2007–January 2008), pp. 47–48, ill. (color) [translation of Ref. Penrose 1982].
Jonathan Stuhlman inDouble Solitaire: The Surreal Worlds of Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy. Ed. Nancy Wallach. Exh. cat., Katonah Museum of Art. Katonah, N. Y., 2011, pp. 39, 43, 45, 47, figs. 1 (installation photo, Exh. Hartford 1954), 9 (color).
Yves Tanguy (American (born France), Paris 1900–1955 Woodbury, Connecticut)
1939
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