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Au Coeur de la Paresse

Yves Tanguy

Contemporary Art

Surrealism, a visual and literary movement founded in 1924, originated as a European response to the First World War. Yves Tanguy painted Surrealist landscapes devoid of human figures throughout his career.

Composition and Robe du Matin—created during Tanguy’s self-imposed exile in the United States in the wake of World War II—speak to the irrationality of war and the annihilation of Europe’s people. Using Surrealist free association and unexpected juxtapositions, Tanguy frames vast voids with interlocking forms that resemble body parts and spindly rods. His dreamlike deviations from the natural world reflect Surrealism’s interest in Freudian psychology and the subconscious, and perhaps the postwar landscape of 1946 Europe.
MEDIUM Oil on canvas
DATES 1946
DIMENSIONS 39 × 32 in. (99.1 × 81.3 cm) frame: 43 × 35 3/4 × 4 in. (109.2 × 90.8 × 10.2 cm)  (show scale)
SIGNATURE Lower left in black ink: "Yves Tanguy, 1946"
INSCRIPTIONS Label on board: Pierre Matisse Gallery/ 41 East 57 St, New York 22, NY/ Artist: Yves Tanguy Title: Au Coeur de la parene/ No. ST A763/ Size 39x32
COLLECTIONS Contemporary Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 2004.30.26
CREDIT LINE Gift of The Beatrice and Samuel A. Seaver Foundation
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Yves Tanguy (Paris, France, 1900 - 1955, Woodbury, Connecticut). Au Coeur de la Paresse, 1946. Oil on canvas, 39 × 32 in. (99.1 × 81.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of The Beatrice and Samuel A. Seaver Foundation, 2004.30.26. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2004.30.26_SL3.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 2004.30.26_SL3.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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