''Mama, Papa is Wounded!'' is a 1927 oil-on-canvas painting by French
surrealist
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
painter
Yves Tanguy
Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy (January 5, 1900 – January 15, 1955), known as just Yves Tanguy (, ), was a French surrealist painter.
Biography
Tanguy, the son of a retired navy captain, was born January 5, 1900, at the Ministry of Naval Affa ...
.
Description
The title of the painting is comes from a psychiatric case history, which Tanguy used to title other works as well.
From ''Sketchline'':
:"The picture is a fantastic landscape, illuminated by a grayish-violet unearthly light. Against the background of the desert space, there are several strange objects that are completely unconnected: a cactus, beans, a yellow figure and a peculiar “shaggy” stick. A dark cloud occupying the right side of the canvas hangs menacingly over the field. The title of the work not only does not explain what is happening but, as is often the case with Surrealists, creates an even greater mystery, thereby making the audience curious."
Influence
According to Nathalia Brodskaïa, ''Mama, Papa is Wounded!'' is one of Tanguy's most impressive paintings. Brodskaïa writes that the painting reflects his debt to
Giorgio de Chirico
Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico ( , ; 10 July 1888 – 20 November 1978) was an Italian
artist and writer born in Greece. In the years before World War I, he founded the '' scuola metafisica'' art movement, which profoundly influ ...
– falling shadows and a classical torso – and conjures up a sense of doom: the horizon, the emptiness of the plain, the solitary plant, the smoke, the helplessness of the small figures. Tanguy said that it was an image he saw entirely in his imagination before starting to paint it.
[Nathalia Brodskaïa, ''Surrealism'', Parkstone International, 2012]
p. 123
References
Surrealist paintings
1927 paintings
Paintings by Yves Tanguy
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