{"data":{"id":"1146","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":1146,"topgoose_id":485,"tms_id":1146,"display_name":"Kay Sage","sort_name":"Sage Kay","display_date":"1898–1963","begin_date":"1898","end_date":"1963","biography":"\u003cp\u003eBorn into a wealthy family in upstate New York, Kay Sage had a peripatetic childhood and spent much of her adult life in Italy and France. In Paris she joined the circle of Surrealist painters working there during the late 1930s. Following the outbreak of World War II, Sage returned to the United States and married fellow Surrealist \u003ca href=\"/artists/1312\"\u003eYves Tanguy\u003c/a\u003e, settling in rural Woodbury, Connecticut. By the end of the war, she adopted architectural imagery as the signature subject of her mature paintings, which depict imaginary psychic landscapes.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/1593\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eNo Passing\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e—like many of her canvases—portrays a barren, otherworldly realm, here populated by windowless monoliths that in turn are covered with smaller rectangular slabs and lattice-like constructions resembling scaffolding. Receding infinitely into the distance, these fantastical structures are painted in a meticulous realist style—a hallmark Surrealist technique for invoking an uncanny sense of disjuncture. The flaglike objects that lean against the buildings and are strewn on the ground hint at a mysterious activity or ritual that was suddenly abandoned, leaving the scene eerily devoid of human presence. The painting’s mood of unease and melancholy is reinforced by Sage’s muted tones of gray, green, and blue, a palette influenced by the early Renaissance frescoes she had encountered during her years in Italy. \u003cem\u003eNo Passing\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003emay depict a world under\nconstruction, or a scene of postapocalyptic\ndesolation, but it is impossible to know\nfor certain. Enigmatic and impenetrable,\nthe painting fulfills the admonitory\nwarning of its title.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500025288","wikidata_id":"Q444567","created_at":"2017-08-30T15:41:55.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-23T01:33:41.312-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/1146/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/1146/exhibitions"}}}}