Double Solitaire: The Surreal Worlds of Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy

by Stephen Robeson Miller, Jonathan Stuhlman, Yves Tanguy (Artist)

Yves Tanguy and Kay Sage were two of Surrealism's leading painters, who together elaborated de Chirico's world of isolate and obdurate forms into eerie landscapes sparsely populated with biomorphic life forms. Here, for the first time, the work of this dynamic couple is explored in depth. An essay by Stephen Robeson Miller examines the intersection of Sage's and Tanguy's biographies with their work, accurately recounting for the first time Sage's conversion to Surrealism. A second essay by Jonathan Stuhlman traces the ways in which Sage's art influenced Tanguy's. These essays are accompanied by color plates containing several previously unreproduced works and photographs.

Genres: Art

104 pages, Paperback

First published August 31, 2011

Reviews

[Benjamin Kahn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the perfect book for me. I wanted to learn a little bit more about both artists and see more of their works, but felt no need to do a deep dive. This book satisfied both impulses completely - it includes a lot of reproductions of both artists' works, while giving a high-level biography of the two,f focusing especially on their years together.

The essays were interesting, although in the second one by Jonathan Stuhlman, he makes the case for Sage's influence on Tanguy's art, and argues that after they started working together, Tanguy's colour palette started to mimic Sage's, where Tanguy started to eschew the bright colours of his earlier works. Although this might be true to a certain extent, there are early pictures, including "I Am Waiting For You," the first work of Tanguy's that Sage ever saw, which also uses muted tones. So although he makes some valid points in this essay, this argument is a little weak.

Overall, exactly what I wanted, and I enjoyed learning more about both these artists.

[Matt McBride · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not extensively read in Kay Sage criticism, but one thing I have noticed is that many critics find it important to establish her independence from Tanguy's work. I feel that battle has been won. While Sage is grossly underappreciated, most anyone who pays serious attention to her can see what makes her distinct. Stephen Robeson Miller's opening essay does a great job tracing the history of the relationship of the two artists, their influences in common, and how the Wadsworth Athenaeum exhibition came together. Jonathan Stuhlman's essay is unique in that it looks at Sage's influence on Tanguy's works (and makes a compelling case for the ways Tanguy's work evolved in relation to Sage's after the 1940's). He, to my knowledge, is the only critic to address this. The book is in full color with color reproductions integrated into the essays. Further, the full-color plates in the back place Sage's paintings next to Tanguy's, which let's Stuhlman's argument run tacitly underneath them.

[Lenny]

Read for final paper on Kay Sage