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©
VEGAP, Madrid
Yves Tanguy

Imaginary Numbers

1954
Oil on canvas.
99 x 80 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
768
(
1973.12
)
ROOM 44
Level 1
Permanent Collection
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Postpop rooms Rodin room
30 18th and 19th Centuries. Transatlantic Relations 31 19th Century. American Landscape and Environmental Awareness 32 19th Century. American Landscape and Urban Life 33 Recovering the ligth. Restoration of Waterloo Bridge, by André Derain 34 20th Century. Expressionist Landscapes 35 20th Century. Expressionist Portraits 36 20th Century. The Language of the Body 37 20th Century. Urban unrest 38 20th Century. Flowers 39 20th Century. Pioneers of abstraction 40 20th Century. Popular flavor 41 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition I 42 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition II 43 20th Century. Abstract Utopias 44 20th Century. Dada and Surrealism 45 20th Century. Interwar Realisms 46 20th Century. American Abstraction I 48 20th Century. Post-ward American Art 49 20th Century. Post-ward European Figurative Art 50 20th Century. Informalisms 51 20th Century. Homo Ludens 52 20th Century. Pop Art 53 Postpop rooms 54 Postpop rooms 55 Postpop rooms 56 Postpop rooms Rodin Exhibition room
During the last years of Yves Tanguy’s life, his painting became darker and less poetic. In Imaginary Numbers, considered by some to be his last work, the earlier biomorphic forms become petrified and are no longer isolated, forming compact groups of geological formations. These ambiguous monuments, which some authors link to the sculptures of Henry Moore and Hans Arp, may be interpreted as a premonition of death.

As in Multiplication of Arches, a painting dating from the same year and acquired by The Museum of Modern Art in New York on the occasion of the major exhibition of the painter’s works at Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford in 1954, the strange and inexorable sea of stones becomes a terrifying labyrinth that defies any hope of escaping.

The work belonged to the dealer Pierre Matisse (1900–1989), the son of Henri Matisse, who opened a gallery in New York in 1931, and from 1958 it was owned by the great historian of the modern movement and curator of The Museum of Modern Art, William Rubin (1927–2006), until entering the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection in 1973.

Paloma Alarcó
20th Centurys. XX - Pintura europea. SurrealismoPaintingOilcanvas
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Imaginary Numbers. Números imaginarios, 1954
Imaginary Numbers
Yves Tanguy

©

VEGAP, Madrid

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The exploitation rights of the images correspond to the Fundacion Coleccion Thyssen-Bornemisza, F.S.P. The Fundación authorizes the downloading of high-resolution images from its website for private use, use for educational and research purposes and non-commercial uses.

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Imaginary Numbers. Números imaginarios, 1954
Imaginary Numbers
Yves Tanguy

©

VEGAP, Madrid

Terms of Use

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To request images or permits for commercial use in academic or research publications, that is, catalogues of other institutions, monographs and other specialized publications, you should contact the Museum's Photo Library by email at the e-mail @email.

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Requests for scans or new photographs will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Once approved, an additional fee will apply. Re-photographing a work will require a minimum of six weeks to complete.

However, photographed works are protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the photographs set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license from  VEGAP (Visual Entidad de Gestión de Artistas Plásticos www.vegap.es) or from the corresponding collective management organizations in the country where the work is going to be used or, where appropriate, from the holder of their rights in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

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