Plein Ciel. Open Sky. Or Étrangers. The Foreigners by Yves Tanguy, 1900-1955

Yves Tanguy, 1900-1955
Scroll down for information.
Click here to return to the list.

Plein Ciel. Open Sky. Or Étrangers. The Foreigners

Original etching with aquatint in black ink. 1947. Signed in pencil (capital letters signature). Inscribed (probably by Mme Tanguy) with the title: Les Etrangers - The Foreigners. One of only a very few known proofs. No issued edition. Etched and the few known proofs printed at Atelier 17, New York 1947. Extremely rare. Provenance: Private Collection. Bought Paris
c. 1960.
Ref: Wittrock - Tanguy The Graphic Work no 12.

Superb richly printed and tonal proof. On cream laid velin paper. Extremely fine original unrestored condition. Full margins. Sheet: 13 x 10 1/8ins. Plate: 6 3/4 x 5ins (175x126mm).

This item is sold.
Click here to enquire about this item.

Tanguy was one of the most important and inventive artists of the Surrealist circle. He was also amongst the most creative and intuitive printmakers in the group. He worked almost exclusively in etching and his approach to the technique, whilst controlled by his own constant sense of invention, was also guided by his contact with his friends Miro and Ernst, but above all by his contact with Hayter at Atelier 17. At the beginning of the War he moved to New York and it was whilst he was there that he became even closer to Hayter, working at the re-established Atelier there. Hayter?s supreme understanding of etching techniques and effects, and Tanguy?s unique and totally personal feeling for the visual effects that he sought, resulted in some of the greatest of all Surrealist prints.

Unfortunately most of Tanguy?s prints were ever issued in proper editions, and only a few proofs exist. Plein Ciel is one of the outstanding prints of his New York period. No edition is recorded except for one proof. The impression above was acquired at the 1950?s or in the first years of the 60?s by its previous owner. It is inscribed with the title ?Les Etrangers? (rather than ?Plein Ciel? as is recorded in the Tanguy oeuvre catalogue) but probably in the hand of Tanguy?s widow. Impressions of this etching are exceptional rare.

Tanguy was self-taught as a painter. After a bohemian youth he began to draw in the 1920?s; then having come into contact with Surrealist writing he met Andre Breton in 1926. Seeing paintings by De Chirico confirmed his own Surrealist inspiration, and between various travels in the late 1930?s he became a central figure amongst the Surrealists. At the outbreak of War he moved to New York with Matta and Breton. During his travels he had been deeply impressed by outlandish rock formations that he had seen in various locations, including Brittany. Forms derived from the random piercing of such rocks, together with dream-inspired quasi-animal and figure shapes, became the language of his art. In his prints a superlative understanding of how to create effects of light, surface and texture were combined with these themes to produce images which have a haunting and extraordinarily invasive presence.