Kay Sage, an American, was associated with the Surrealist movement, which explored the expression of an alternative reality through the unconscious mind and dream imagery. Too Soon for Thunder is a desolate landscape, filled with enigmatic, architectural motifs and draped, skeletal phantoms. Of a similar image Sage explained, "It's a sort of showing what's inside-things half mechanical, half alive. The mountain itself can represent almost anything-a human, life, the world, any fundamental thing…I do know that while I'm painting, I feel as though I am living in the place."
Bequest of the artist
1943
Oil on canvas
28.1 x 36.0 in
64-36
Text: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2023 Image: Estate of Kay Sage / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Permanent collection
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ASL: Too Soon for Thunder
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