
© Estate of Yves Tanguy / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

© Estate of Yves Tanguy / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

© Estate of Yves Tanguy / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.



Yves Tanguy
French, 1900-1955
Divisibilité indéfinie (Indefinite Divisibility), 1942
oil on canvas
support: 40 x 35 inches (101.6 x 89 cm); framed: 51 1/4 x 46 x 3 1/8 inches (130.18 x 116.84 x 7.94 cm)
Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Room of Contemporary Art Fund, 1945
RCA1945:2
More Details
Inscriptions
Provenance
Pierre Matisse Gallery;sold to the Albright Gallery, June 22, 1945
Class
Work Type
This information may change due to ongoing research. Glossary of Terms
Without employing direct references to the real world, Yves Tanguy painted surreal landscapes laden with strange, indeterminate forms. Tanguy taught himself how to paint after seeing a work by Giorgio de Chirico through the window of an art gallery. In 1925, he joined the Surrealist group in Paris, and in a relatively short time, he developed a style that remained consistent from 1927 until his death. In Indefinite Divisibility, which Tanguy painted after moving to the United States, a mysterious structure dominates the foreground and casts a dark shadow, a visual motif he borrowed from de Chirico. In this work, space appears infinite, like an endless desert. The atmosphere is dense and oppressive, yet also penetrated by strong, warming light.
Label from Picasso: The Artist and His Models, November 5, 2016–February 19, 2017
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