Artwork Page for A Bird in the Room

Details / Information for A Bird in the Room

A Bird in the Room

1955

Kay Sage

(American, 1898–1963)
Culture
America
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
Unframed: 99.1 x 81.3 cm (39 x 32 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Kay Sage Tanguy 1964.340
Copyright
© Estate of Kay Sage / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
226B American Modern
Print
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Did You Know?

To maintain her own identity, Sage often refused to exhibit with her husband, also an artist.

Description

Sage created this work, one of her most somber and desolate, shortly after the death of her husband, Yves Tanguy (1900–1955), who was also an esteemed Surrealist painter. The title likely refers to the folk legend that says a wild bird flying into a house is a premonition of death—an actual event that Sage experienced shortly before Tanguy passed away. Although for most of her career she was a prolific artist, Sage increasingly lost her momentum and inspiration during widowhood. Unable to endure living with her loss, she became reclusive and depressed, eventually succeeding in her second attempt at suicide by shooting herself in the heart.

A Bird in the Room

1955

Kay Sage

(American, 1898–1963)
America

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