Yves Tanguy’s 1942 painting ‘The Absent Lady’ is a prime example of his Surrealist style which seamlessly amalgamates the real and imagined elements alike. The oil on canvas painting measures 45 25 inches by 35 inches and can be found at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Dusseldorf, Germany. Tanguy incorporated his fascination with biomorphic forms and dream-like shapes in this piece. Unlike other paintings from the same period, ‘The Absent Lady’ is almost completely devoid of human presence, thus creating tension between the emotional intensity and strange yet entrancing ambience.
Tanguy’s most famous Surrealist work is probably Legendes Ni Figures (Neither Legends Nor Figures) completed in 1930. This vividly colored painting includes a rolling landscape full of unknown objects, splinters of rocks, chunks of stone, mysterious yellow pools and disorientating diagonals – all symbolic ideas meant to elicit a sense of existential alienation in its viewers. Emblematic of both strangeness and beauty, this avant-garde artwork truly sets new standards for abstract art.
