Yves Tanguy

Yves Tanguy (1900-1955), French American painter, born in Paris, and self-trained. After World War I he served as an officer in the French merchant marine and later returned to Paris, where, in 1925, he became one of the surrealists. Tanguy's paintings of strange and fantastic bones and amoebalike shapes, arranged in flat, lifeless, imaginary landscapes, quickly won recognition. Although belonging to a haunted dream world, his figures were smoothly painted in clear colors with painstaking detail. The artist moved to the United States in 1939 and later became a U.S. citizen. Typical of his work are Mama, Papa Is Wounded! (1927, Museum of Modern Art, New York City), Lazy Days (1937, Musée Nationale d'Art Moderne, Paris), Palais aux rochers des fenêtres (1942, Musée Nationale d'Art Moderne), and Multiplication des arts (1954, Museum of Modern Art).