ProvenioArt Intelligence
Sign InExplore
united states of americaconcept:era modern

Indefinite Divisibility

Oil on canvas by Yves Tanguy (1942). A vast, luminous plain stretching to an indeterminate horizon, populated by meticulously rendered biomorphic objects that cast precise shadows on impossible surfaces — the most complete expression of Tanguy's Surrealist geography. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo.

Scholarly Significance

Tanguy's mature dreamscape painting; canonical example of Surrealist imaginary geography; Albright-Knox anchor.

Notes

  • ·Painted in 1942 in Woodbury, Connecticut, where Tanguy lived with Kay Sage after emigrating from France.
  • ·The title refers to mathematical infinite divisibility — an oblique engagement with wartime uncertainty.
  • ·The precision of the rendering is extraordinary: each object casts a geometrically consistent shadow despite being non-existent.
  • ·Albright-Knox purchased it in 1945 directly from Tanguy — one of the first major US museum acquisitions of his work.
  • ·The work influenced Abstract Expressionism through its gestural paint handling in sky areas.