Christie's 2017
One of the first works he created upon arriving in the USA, Yves Tanguy’s La lumière, la solitude (1940, estimate: £500,000-700,000, illustrated, left) is a comparatively large, highly worked, jewel-like painting, distinctive for the rich rainbow colours of its background. With its constellation of automatic, intuitively-arrived-at, forms in the foreground, it hovers on the borderline between realist landscape and abstract fantasy. One of the best compositions the market has seen for years this painting was hidden in a private European collection for decades until now.
Sotheby’s London Surrealist Art Evening Sale on 5 February 2013
Composition by Yves Tanguy (est. £400,000 -
600,000), which comes to the market for the first time in 80 years, was
executed in a year thatmarked a watershed in the artist’s career - 1927. It was
during this year that he began to create works that, through their ingenuity
and beauty, firmly established the style which became the defining aesthetic of
Tanguy’s art. He had by then become a highly accomplished painter and in
complete command of a new personal Surrealist language which was often based on
his childhood fascination with the sea. In the same year he was recognised by
his fellow Surrealists by being given his first one-man show at the Galerie
Surréaliste in Paris.
The luminous blue of the upper composition is enlivened by the presence of a biomorphic figure who stalks the ocean floor. Though Tanguy received no formal artistic training, his childhood summers spent near Finistère in Brittany, on the western coast of France overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, had a profound influence on his style. Composition is included in the forthcoming Yves Tanguy Catalogue raisonné.
It is also the most important painting by Tanguy to come on the market since the André Breton sale in 2003.
The painting has an estimate of €700,000-1,000,000 and combines all the qualities sought by Tanguy connoisseurs: richness of composition; multi-faceted visual appeal, spectacularly featuring what André Breton called ‘object-beings’; the miniaturist precision with which Tanguy evokes his inner world; technical mastery and chromatic musicality; the date of 1933, a year that marked a watershed in Tanguy’s stylistic development; and the rarity of such a work in terms of its size, dream-like vision and market virginity.
Unlike other Surrealists (such as Miro, Ernst, De Chirico, Masson, Magritte, Arp, Brauner or Dali), Tanguy was unique in emancipating himself from reality. The ‘objects’ he offers for view, floating against unremarkable backgrounds, are impervious to language, making Tanguy appear the most extremist artist in the movement.
Sotheby's 2015
Sotheby's 2014
The luminous blue of the upper composition is enlivened by the presence of a biomorphic figure who stalks the ocean floor. Though Tanguy received no formal artistic training, his childhood summers spent near Finistère in Brittany, on the western coast of France overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, had a profound influence on his style. Composition is included in the forthcoming Yves Tanguy Catalogue raisonné.
Sotheby's
February 2011
Yves Tanguy (1900 - 1955), Lumen, 1949. Est:
£350,000-450,000. Photo: Sotheby's
Yves Tanguy was
represented in the sale, with his oil on canvas Lumen, 1949 (est:
£350,000-450,000), which is populated by evocative biomorphic shapes and is
characteristic of the artist’s enigmatic landscapes and abandoned fields,
representing an alternative, fantastic world.
Artcurial 2012
- Yves Tanguy (1900-1955)
Untitled, 1933 - Oil on canvas
signed & dated Yves Tanguy 33 bottom right
55 x 46 cm - Estimate: €700,000 - 1,000,000
It is also the most important painting by Tanguy to come on the market since the André Breton sale in 2003.
The painting has an estimate of €700,000-1,000,000 and combines all the qualities sought by Tanguy connoisseurs: richness of composition; multi-faceted visual appeal, spectacularly featuring what André Breton called ‘object-beings’; the miniaturist precision with which Tanguy evokes his inner world; technical mastery and chromatic musicality; the date of 1933, a year that marked a watershed in Tanguy’s stylistic development; and the rarity of such a work in terms of its size, dream-like vision and market virginity.
Unlike other Surrealists (such as Miro, Ernst, De Chirico, Masson, Magritte, Arp, Brauner or Dali), Tanguy was unique in emancipating himself from reality. The ‘objects’ he offers for view, floating against unremarkable backgrounds, are impervious to language, making Tanguy appear the most extremist artist in the movement.
A THRIVING MARKET
The market for Yves Tanguy is booming, with the paucity of his works to be found at auction internationally only increasing their value. After just three works in 2010, six appeared in 2011 – only one of comparable quality to our work, and sold for a premium-inclusive €2,800,000. Just one Tanguy painting has appeared on the international market since the start of 2012 – a larger work than ours, but again of similar quality, and sold for a premium-inclusive €3,100,000.Sotheby's 2015
Yves Tanguy
LOT SOLD.
2,165,000 GBP
Sotheby's 2014
Yves Tanguy
LOT SOLD.
245,000 USD
Yves Tanguy
LOT SOLD.
221,000 USD
Yves Tanguy
LOT SOLD.
785,000 USDChristie's 2014
Christie's 2013
Christie's 2012
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Christie's 2011
Christie's 2010
National Gallery (Washington DC)
- Tanguy, Yves
- , French, 1900 - 1955
- The Look of Amber
- 1929
- oil on canvas
- overall: 100 x 81 x 2.3 cm (39 3/8 x 31 7/8 x 7/8 in.)
- framed: 128.9 x 108.3 x 6.3 cm (50 3/4 x 42 5/8 x 2 1/2 in.)
- Chester Dale Fund
- 1984.75.1
