#kaysage

In the Third Sleep, Kay Sage, 1944, Art Institute of Chicago: American Art

Kay Sage, an American expatriate living in Paris, first encountered Surrealism at the 1938 Exposition internationale du surréalisme and was tremendously inspired by the works of Giorgio de Chirico. After becoming involved with the French artist Yves Tanguy, whom she married in 1940, she became a member of the circle of Surrealists that formed around André Breton. In the Third Sleep depicts a large bipartite shape resembling drapery, which improbably rises straight up into the air from a ramplike structure that crosses an otherwise barren landscape. The striking composition suggests the mystifying forms and spaces of dream worlds, reflecting the Surrealists’ fascination with the unconscious. Friends of American Art Collection; Watson F. Blair Prize Fund Size: 100.3 × 144.8 cm (39 1/2 × 57 in.) Medium: Oil on canvas

In the Third Sleep, Kay Sage, 1944, Art Institute of Chicago: American Art

Kay Sage, an American expatriate living in Paris, first encountered Surrealism at the 1938 Exposition internationale du surréalisme and was tremendously inspired by the works of Giorgio de Chirico. After becoming involved with the French artist Yves Tanguy, whom she married in 1940, she became a member of the circle of Surrealists that formed around André Breton. In the Third Sleep depicts a large bipartite shape resembling drapery, which improbably rises straight up into the air from a ramplike structure that crosses an otherwise barren landscape. The striking composition suggests the mystifying forms and spaces of dream worlds, reflecting the Surrealists’ fascination with the unconscious. Friends of American Art Collection; Watson F. Blair Prize Fund Size: 100.3 × 144.8 cm (39 1/2 × 57 in.) Medium: Oil on canvas

Poems by Kay Sage:

AN OBSERVATION

The more I wonder,

the longer I live,

how much water

can stay in a sieve

THE WINDOW

My room has two door

and one window

One door is red and the other is grey.

I cannot open the red door;

the grey door does not interest me.

Having no choice I shall lock them both

and look out of the window.

CHINOISERIE

English, French, Italian,

I can write in all of these,

but, at best, they are translations.

I think in Chinese.

FRAGRANCE

I feel unexpectedly

delicious fragrance

a perfume full of memories

of youth, of spring

which seems to follow my smile

the motion of my hands.

I look in vain

I cannot find it

what can it be?

And then

in a flash, I’ve got it

I know

that’s it

that fragrance

is the memory

In the Third Sleep, Kay Sage, 1944, Art Institute of Chicago: American Art

Kay Sage, an American expatriate living in Paris, first encountered Surrealism at the 1938 Exposition internationale du surréalisme and was tremendously inspired by the works of Giorgio de Chirico. After becoming involved with the French artist Yves Tanguy, whom she married in 1940, she became a member of the circle of Surrealists that formed around André Breton. In the Third Sleep depicts a large bipartite shape resembling drapery, which improbably rises straight up into the air from a ramplike structure that crosses an otherwise barren landscape. The striking composition suggests the mystifying forms and spaces of dream worlds, reflecting the Surrealists’ fascination with the unconscious. Friends of American Art Collection; Watson F. Blair Prize Fund Size: 100.3 × 144.8 cm (39 1/2 × 57 in.) Medium: Oil on canvas