Object number1963.7

Small Portrait

Date1950

Artist Kay Sage (American, 1898-1963)

CultureAmerican

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsFramed: 15 3/8 x 12 1/4 x 1 3/16 in. (39.05 x 31.12 x 3.02 cm)
Unframed: 14 1/2 x 11 3/8 in. (36.83 x 28.89 cm)

Credit LineBequest of Kay Sage Tanguy

Period20th c

Classification(s)

Painting

SignedSigned and dated (LR): Kay Sage '50

InscribedVC 63.7 on verso of frame (Vassar College object number)

BibliographyPierson, Ralph M. The Modern Renaissance in American Art: Presenting the Work and Philosophy of Fifty-four Distinguished Artists (New York: Harper Brothers, 1954), fig. 186 repr.; Soby, J.T. Tribute to Kay Sage at Mattatuck Museum, Art in America 53 (October 1965) p. 83, repr.; Rubinstein, Charlotte Streifer. American Women Artists from Early Indian Times to the Present (Boston: G.K. Hall & Co.; New York: Avon Books, 1982), pl. 29, disc. pg. 292; Miller, Stephen Robeson. The Art of Kay Sage (1983) on depository at the Archives of American Art, Washington, DC and New York (reel no. 2888), no. 135; Miller, Stephen Robeson. The Surrealist Imagery of Kay Sage, Art International, vol. 26 no. 4 (September-October 1983), p. 32-47, 54-56, repr. p. 55, fig. 24; Chadwick, Whitney. Women Artists and the Surrealist Movement (Boston: Little, Brown, 1985), plate V, repr.; Caws, Mary Ann, Rudolf E. Kuenzli, and Gloria Gwen Raaberg. Surrealism and Women (Cambridge: MIT, 1991), repr., cover; Ehrlich, Susan. Pacific Dreams: Currents of Surrealism and Fantasy in California Art 1934-1957 (Los Angeles: University of California, Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center, 1995) p. 21 fig. 4; Vieuille, Chantel, Kay Sage, Paris: Edisions Complicities, 1995, repr., cover; Suther, Judith. A House of Her Own: Kay Sage, Solitary Surrealist (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1997), repro.; Chadwick, Whitney. Mirror Images: Women, Surrealism, and Self-representation (Cambridge: MIT, 1998) pl. 5; Borzello, Frances. Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self-portraits (London: Thames & Hudson, 1998) p. 155, repr.; Dervaux, Isabelle. Surrealism USA (New York: National Academy Museum; Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2004) pl. 124; Caws, Mary Ann. The Surreal House (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010), p. 332, repr.; Miller, Stephen Robeson, Jonathan Stuhlman and ed. Nancy Wallach. Double Solitaire: The Surreal Worlds of Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy (Katonah: Katonah Museum of Art, 2011), pl. 22; Dempsey, Amy. Surrealism (London: Thames & Hudson: Art Essentials, 2019) p. 77, repr.; Pfeiffer, Ingrid. Fantastic Women: Surreal Worlds from Meret Oppenheim to Frida Kahlo. Munich, DE: Hirmer Publishers, 2020, pp. 243, 413.ProvenanceCollection of Kay Sage Tanguy
Bequest to Vassar College, 1963
Exhibition HistoryNew York, New York, Catherine Viviano Gallery, “Kay Sage: Exhibition of Paintings,” February 21 - March 11, 1950, Cat. no. 11;

Rome, Italy, Galleria Dell’Obelisco, “Kay Sage,” March 16 - 31, 1953, Cat. no. 10;

Paris, France, Galerie Nina Dausset, “Kay Sage,” April 10 - 30, 1953;

Hartford, Connecticut, Wadsworth Atheneum, “Yves Tanguy, Kay Sage,” August 10- September 28, 1954, Cat. no. 18, repr.;

Cambridge, Massachusetts, New Gallery, Charles Hyden Memorial Library Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “ Yves Tanguy, Kay Sage,” January 5 - 30, 1955;

New York, New York, Catherine Viviano Gallery, “Kay Sage: Retrospective Exhibition,” April 5 - 30, 1960, Cat. no. 22;

Waterbury, Connecticut, Mattatuck Museum, "A Tribute to Kay Sage," November - December 1965, Cat. no. 40, repr.;

New London, Connecticut, Lyman Allyn Museum, "A Tribute to Kay Sage," January 1966;

Albany, New York, Albany Institute of History and Art, "A Tribute to Kay Sage," March 1966;

Williamstown, Massachusetts, Williams College Museum of Art, "A Tribute to Kay Sage," February 1966;

Poughkeepsie, New York, Vassar College Art Gallery, "A Tribute to Kay Sage," April 3 - 25, 1966;

Katonah, New York, Katonah Gallery, "A Tribute to Kay Sage," May 1966;

New Paltz, New York, The College Art Gallery, State University of New York at New Paltz, "Portraits and Self-Portraits," October 8 - 23, 1970;

Ithaca, New York, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, "Kay Sage," January 26 - March 13, 1977; same exhibition traveled to College Park, Maryland, University of Maryland, April 5 - May 15, 1977, and Albany, New York, Albany Institute of History and Art, June 8 - July 20, 1977; Cat. no. 40, (color reproduction on cover and poster, black and white front piece);

Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT List Visual Arts Center, "Mirror Images: Women, Surrealism and Self-Representation," April 10 - June 28, 1998, p. 4, repr.; same exhibition traveled to Miami, Florida, Miami Art Museum, September 11 - November 29, 1998, and San Francisco, California, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, January - March 1999;

Paris, France, Galerie Jean Michel Place, "Scandaleusement d’ells: trente-quatre Femmes Surrealistes,” 1999, p. 269, repr.;

New York, New York, National Academy of Design, "Surrealism USA," February 17, 2004 - May 8, 2005; same exhibition traveled to Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix Art Museum, June 5 - September 25 2005;

Katonah, New York, Katonah Museum of Art, "Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy," January 15 - April 9, 2006;

London, England, Barbican Centre, "The Surreal House," June 10, 2010 - September 12, 2010;

Katonah, New York, Katonah Museum of Art, “Double Solitaire: The Surreal Worlds of Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy,” June 5 - September 18, 2011; same exhibition traveled to Wellesley, Massachusetts, Davis Museum at Wellesley College, October 19, 2011- January 15, 2012; and, Charlotte, North Carolina, The Mint Museum, February 11- May 13, 2012;

Williamstown, Massachusetts, Williams College Museum of Art, "Collector and Benefactor: Kay Sage and James Thrall Soby," September 20, 2018 - January 19, 2019;

Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, "Fantastic Women: Surreal Worlds from Meret Oppenheim to Frida Kahlo," July 25 - November 8, 2020

Terms

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu