Danger, Construction Ahead Artist: Kay Sage (American, 1898–1963)

1940

American Paintings and Sculpture

On view, 3rd floor, Modern and Contemporary Art and Design


Danger, Construction Ahead shows a sentinel-lined bridge abruptly ending at a sharp point. In 1940, when Kay Sage painted this otherworldly landscape, she had just returned to her native United States after a long period abroad. Later that year, she married the Surrealist painter Yves Tanguy, who aided her transition from life in Italy and Paris to New York. The clear highlight of her first solo exhibition in New York, this painting began a prolific phase in Sage's work of "intuitive sceneries," in which the imagination shaped all.

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

44 × 62 in. (111.8 × 157.5 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh J. Chisholm, Jr., B.A. 1936

Accession Number

1960.63.3

Geography

Made in United States

Culture

American

Period

20th century

Classification

Paintings

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Bibliography
  • Dr. Ilene Susan Fort, Tere Arcq, and Terri Geis, eds., In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States, exh. cat. (New York: Prestel-Verlag, 2012), 30, fig. 12
  • Karoline Hille, Spiele der Frauen: Ku¨nstlerinnen im Surrealismus (Stuttgart, Germany: Belser, 2009), p 131, ill
Object copyright
© Estate of Kay Sage / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
In Copyright
Additional information

Object/Work type

architecture, landscapes (representations)

Subject

Nature Women artists bridges (built works) shadows

Signed

Signed l.r. "Kay Sage 40"

Technical metadata and APIs

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