Yves Tanguy Arrières-pensées (Second Thoughts), 1939

NARRATOR:  

The forms scattered in this troubled landscape seem to emerge from the unconscious. They suggest figures, even perhaps animals, or possibly sculptures or furnishings. But on close inspection you can see that they are entirely imaginary. Their surfaces look soft and undulating, yet their edges are sharply drawn. Notice that many of them are connected by threads or filaments, which may suggest some unknowable network of relationships. These forms cast shadows that seem more solid, more real than the forms themselves. The light comes from behind us, lighting not only the objects in the landscape but also the eerie atmosphere, a lowering mist that never quite reveals the horizon. Enigmatic landscapes like this are characteristic of the painting of Yves Tanguy, who was one of the major Surrealist painters along with Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst and Joan Miró.