Unicorns Came Down to the Sea

Currently not on view

Unicorns Came Down to the Sea

1948

Kay Sage Tanguy (American, 1898–1963)

Kay Sage spent most of the 1920s and 1930s in Europe. Upon her arrival in Paris in 1937, she joined the Surrealist movement and met her future husband, artist Yves Tanguy (American (born France), 1900 - 1955). But it was back home in the United States, during the 1940s, that she produced her strongest work. In Unicorns Came Down to the Sea an enigmatic landscape is seen obliquely from a large window with drapery of muted reds, yellows, and blues hanging from a scaffolded archway. Though the gradated background of the painting evokes her husband’s neither-sky-nor-sea landscapes, Sage’s characteristically precise architectural structures signal an entirely new addition to Surrealism’s imaginary built environment.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

Unicorns Came Down to the Sea

Date:

1948

Artist:

Kay Sage Tanguy (American, 1898–1963)

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

36 1/4 × 28 1/4 inches (92.1 × 71.8 cm) Framed: 43 3/4 × 35 7/8 × 2 1/4 inches (111.1 × 91.1 × 5.7 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Credit Line:

Bequest of Kay Sage Tanguy, 1964

Accession Number:

1964-151-1

Geography:

Made in United States, North and Central America

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Currently not on view