Pierre Premiere

Artist Yves Tanguy (French, 1900-1955)

Date1947

DimensionsPainting: 28 × 23 in. (71.1 × 58.4 cm)
Frame: 36 × 30 3/4 × 2 1/2 in. (91.4 × 78.1 × 6.4 cm)

MediumOil on canvas.

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1996.22

Not on View

Label TextCornerstone belongs to Yves Tanguy’s explorations of odd, stone-bone geo-organic formations in a barren, primordial landscape that recedes into a murky distance. The hybrid forms in the foreground are thrust so close to the viewer that their lower parts are cropped by the bottom of the picture. The structure on the left is composed of irregular oval elements, while the other is crowned with a sharp, obelisk-like form, suggesting female-male associations between the two.Published ReferencesMattise, Pierre, and kay Sage, Yves Tanguy. Un Receuil de ses oeuvres. A summary of His Works, Pierre Matisse Editions, New York, 1963.

Exhibition HistoryNew York, Pierre Matisse Gallery, Yves Tanguy, 1950/1963?

Kassel, Germany, Museum Fridericianum, II. Documenta. Kunst nach 45: Internationale Ausstellung, 1959.

Geneva, Artel Galerie

Humblebaek, Louisiana, Denmark, Museum for Monderne Kunst, Seks Surrealistiske Malerne: Dali, Delveaux, Ernst, Magritte, Miro, Tanguy, 1967.

New York, Acquavella Galleries, Yves Tanguy, 1974, repr. (col.) pl. 42.

Roslyn Harbor, NY, Nassau County Museum of Art, Poets and Painters, 1997, p. 35, repr. p. 40.