Tanguy, Yves

Tanguy, Yves (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 joined the Surrealist group. 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 are smoothly painted in clear colours with painstaking detail. Tanguy moved to the United States in 1939 and later became a US citizen. Typical of his work are Mama, Papa Is Wounded! (1927, Museum of Modern Art, New York), Lazy Days (1937, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris), Palais aux rochers des fenêtres (1942, Musée National d'Art Moderne), and Multiplication des arts (1954, Museum of Modern Art).