JE TE RETROUVE OBJET TROUVé

JAMES THRALL SOBY WROTE OF TANGUY'S WORK IN THE '30S AND '40S: "AFTER HIS AFRICAN VOYAGE, TANGUY USUALLY SUBSTITUTED MINERAL FORMS FOR THE VEGETABLE ONES USED IN HIS EARLIER WORKS. HIS COLOUR BECAME MORE COMPLEX AND VARIED...HE MADE MORE AND MORE FREQUENT USE OF ONE OF HIS MOST POETIC INVENTIONS - THE MELTING OF LAND INTO SKY, ONE IMAGE METAMORPHOSED INTO ANOTHER, AS IN THE MOVING-PICTURE TECHNIQUE KNOWN AS LAP-DISSOLVE. THE FIXED HORIZON WAS NOW OFTEN REPLACED BY A CONTINUOUS AND FLOWING TREATMENT OF SPACE, AND IN MANY PAINTINGS OF THE 1930S AND 1940S...IT IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO DETERMINE AT WHAT POINT EARTH BECOMES SKY OR WHETHER THE OBJECTS REST ON THE GROUND OR FLOAT ALOFT. THE AMBIGUITY IS INTENSIFIED BY CHANGES IN THE DENSITY OF THE OBJECTS THEMSELVES, FROM OPAQUE TO TRANSLUCENT TO TRANSPARENT, CREATING A SPATIAL DOUBLE ENTENDRE (EXH. CAT., TANGUY RETROSPECTIVE, MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK, 1955, PP. 17-18).

THE PRESENT WORK CLEARLY EXEMPLIFIES ALL THE QUALITIES IDENTIFIED AS CHARACTERISTIC OF TANGUY'S OEUVRE. IT WAS ACQUIRED IN THE 1940S BY FREDERIK CHRISTIAN BOLDSEN (1877-1954), WHO FOUNDED WHAT IS TODAY KNOWN AS K.A.B., THE COPENHAGEN GENERAL BUILDING SOCIETY. BOLDSEN WAS ALSO AN IMPORTANT AND FARSIGHTED COLLECTOR OF MODERN ART. HE WAS GREATLY INTERESTED IN SURREALISM. HE COLLECTED PICUTRES BY MAGRITTE, TANGUY, DOMINGUEZ AND ERNST, AS WELL AS BY THE SWEDISH SURREALIST HALMSTADT GROUP WHICH INCLUDED ERIK OLSEN, AXEL OLSSON, F. THORéN, S. JONSON AND G. A. NILSON.