One of the most prominent women associated with Surrealism in the United States, Kay Sage made this work after a five-month hiatus from painting following the sudden death of her husband Yves Tanguy. Like many Surrealists, she utilized landscape imagery as a metaphor for the mind and psychological states of being. Rendered in somber gray tones, Tomorrow is Never combines motifs that appear often in the later stages of her career, including architectural scaffolding, latticework structures, and draped figures, to evoke feelings of entrapment and dislocation. The painting is one Sage’s last large works before her suicide in 1963.
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Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): Kay Sage '55
[Catherine Viviano Gallery, New York, 1955; sold to MMA]
New York. Catherine Viviano Gallery. "Kay Sage," January 3–28, 1956, no. 6.
Milwaukee Art Center. "Man's Concept of Outer Space," October 1, 1958–February 15, 1959, no catalogue.
New York. Catherine Viviano Gallery. "Kay Sage: Retrospective Exhibition, 1937–1958," April 5–30, 1960, no. 44.
Waterbury, Conn. Mattatuck Museum. "A Tribute to Kay Sage, 1898–1963," November 5–December 26, 1965, no. 33.
New London, Conn. Lyman Allyn Museum. "A Tribute to Kay Sage, 1898–1963," January 9–27, 1966, no. 33.
Williamstown, Mass. Williams College Museum of Art. "A Tribute to Kay Sage, 1898–1963," February 1–20, 1966, no. 33.
Albany Institute of History & Art. "A Tribute to Kay Sage, 1898–1963," March 1–28, 1966, no. 33.
Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Vassar College Art Gallery. "A Tribute to Kay Sage, 1898–1963," April 3–25, 1966, no. 33.
Katonah, N. Y. Katonah Gallery. "A Tribute to Kay Sage, 1898–1963," May 8–June 16, 1966, no. 33.
Ithaca. Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University. "Kay Sage: 1898–1963," January 26–March 13, 1977, no. 54.
College Park. Art Gallery, University of Maryland. "Kay Sage: 1898–1963," April 5–May 15, 1977, no. 54.
Albany Institute of History and Art. "Kay Sage: 1898–1963," June 8–July 20, 1977, no. 54.
Southampton, N. Y. Parrish Art Museum. "Twentieth Century American Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 25–December 31, 1977, no. 23.
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. "La Peinture Américaine au 20e Siècle de la Collection du Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 28–August 23, 1978, no. 22 (as "Demain C'est Jamais").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Tribute to a Curator: Robert Beverly Hale," November 16, 1978–March 4, 1979, extended to March 18, 1979, no catalogue.
Tulsa, Okla. Philbrook Museum of Art. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 14–June 9, 1991, no. 48.
Miami. Center for the Fine Arts. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 29–August 24, 1991, no. 48.
Omaha. Joslyn Art Museum. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 14–November 10, 1991, no. 48.
Tampa Museum of Art. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," December 14, 1991–February 8, 1992, no. 48.
Greenville, S. C. Greenville County Museum of Art. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," March 17–May 10, 1992, no. 48.
Madison, Wisc. Madison Art Center. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 6–August 2, 1992, no. 48.
Grand Rapids, Mich. Grand Rapids Art Museum. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 11–November 8, 1992, no. 48.
Roslyn Harbor, N. Y. Nassau County Museum of Art. "Intimates and Confidants in Art: Husbands, Wives, Lovers and Friends," February 28–May 23, 1993, unnumbered cat. (p. 55).
New York. Hirschl & Adler Galleries. "Eccentric Orbits: Stanley William Hayter, Charles Howard, Knud Merrild, Kay Sage," April 9–May 29, 1998, not in catalogue (checklist no. 11).
Roslyn Harbor, N. Y. Nassau County Museum of Art. "Surrealism: Dreams on Canvas," May 26–August 12, 2007, unnumbered cat. (p. 60).
Manchester Art Gallery. "Angels of Anarchy: Women Artists and Surrealism," September 26, 2009–January 10, 2010, no. 107.
Katonah, N. Y. Katonah Museum of Art. "Double Solitaire: The Surreal Worlds of Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy," June 5–September 18, 2011, unnumbered cat. (pl. 45).
Wellesley, Mass. Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College. "Double Solitaire: The Surreal Worlds of Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy," October 19, 2011–January 15, 2012, no catalogue.
Charlotte, N. C. Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts. "Double Solitaire: The Surreal Worlds of Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy," February 11–May 13, 2012, unnumbered cat. (pl. 45).
Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. "Fantastic Women: Surreal Worlds from Meret Oppenheim to Frida Kahlo," February 13–July 5, 2020, unnumbered cat. (p. 241).
Humlebæk. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. "Fantastic Women: Surreal Worlds from Meret Oppenheim to Frida Kahlo," July 25–November 8, 2020, unnumbered cat.
Venice. Peggy Guggenheim Collection. "Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity," April 9–September 26, 2022, no. 19.
Potsdam. Museum Barberini. "Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity," October 22, 2022–January 29, 2023, no. 19.
Howard Devree. "Cubist Parallel: Movement Breaking Into Many Facets Has Point Today–Three Americans." New York Times (January 8, 1956), p. X19.
Marcel Jean. The History of Surrealist Painting. 2nd ed. (French ed., 1959). New York, 1960, p. 374, ill. p. 310.
Dorothy Adlow. ""Tomorrow Is Never": An Oil Painting by the Contemporary American Artist Kay Sage." Christian Science Monitor (May 17, 1960), p. 8, ill.
Dorothy Adlow. ""Suspension Bridge for the Swallows": An Oil Painting by Kay Sage." Christian Science Monitor (September 23, 1960), p. 8.
René Passeron. Histoire de la peinture surréaliste. [Paris], 1968, p. 130, fig. 64, calls it "To-morrow is never".
Gerald Eager. "Fantastic Painting in America." PhD diss., The University of Minnesota, 1969, p. 166 n. 29.
Helen A. Harrison inTwentieth Century American Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Parrish Art Museum. Southampton, N. Y., 1977, p. 29, no. 23, ill.
David L. Shirey. "A New Way of Looking at the World." New York Times (October 9, 1977), ill. p. L129.
Elsa Honig Fine. Women & Art: A History of Women Painters and Sculptors from the Renaissance to the 20th Century. Montclair, N.J., 1978, p. 198, fig. 9–10.
Helen A. Harrison inLa Peinture Américaine au 20e Siècle de la Collection du Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. Brussels, 1978, unpaginated, no. 22, ill., reprints Ref. Harrison 1977.
J. H. Matthews inDictionnaire général du surréalisme et de ses environs. Ed. Adam Biro and René Passeron. Fribourg, 1982, p. 373, ill., calls it "To-morrow is Never".
Stephen R. Miller. "The Surrealist Imagery of Kay Sage." Art International 26 (September–October 1983), pp. 45–46, fig. 29 (color), calls it the artist's "best known" painting.
Sarane Alexandrian. Surrealist Art. 3rd ed. (French ed., 1969). New York, 1985, p. 157, fig. 159.
Lisa M. Messinger inThe Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., American Federation of Arts. New York, 1991, pp. 137–39, no. 48, ill. (color).
Eliot Nusbaum. "Joslyn Hosts a Vivid Landscape Show." Des Moines Sunday Register (September 22, 1991), p. 7F.
Franklin Hill Perrell inIntimates and Confidants in Art: Husbands, Wives, Lovers and Friends. Exh. cat., Nassau County Museum of Art. Roslyn Harbor, N.Y., 1993, pp. 13, 80, ill. p. 55.
Renée Riese Hubert. Magnifying Mirrors: Women, Surrealism, and Partnership. Lincoln, Neb., 1994, pp. 176–79, 181–82, 188, fig. 50.
Judith D. Suther. A House of Her Own: Kay Sage, Solitary Surrealist. Lincoln, Neb., 1997, pp. 166–70, ill. between pp. 184–85 (color), suggests this painting's bleak content and title reflect the artist's depressed state after the death of her husband, the artist Yves Tanguy; cites its $2, 215 purchase price as marking the increase of Sage's work's market value.
Stephen Robeson Miller inDouble Solitaire: The Surreal Worlds of Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy. Ed. Nancy Wallach. Exh. cat., Katonah Museum of Art. Katonah, N. Y., 2011, pp. 27–28, 102, colorpl. 45.
Veronica Kavass. Artists in Love: From Picasso & Gilot to Christo & Jeanne-Claude, a Century of Creative and Romantic Partnerships. Ed. Katrina Fried. New York, 2012, p. 71, ill. p. 70 (color).
Jessie Sentivan, ed. Kay Sage Catalogue Raisonné. Munich, 2018, p. 300, no. P.1995.8, ill. p. 301 (color).
Mary Ann Caws inKay Sage Catalogue Raisonné. Ed. Jessie Sentivan. Munich, 2018, pp. 31–32.
Stephanie D'Alessandro and Matthew Gale in Stephanie D'Alessandro and Matthew Gale. Surrealism Beyond Borders. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2021, p. 330, fig. 223 (color).
Daniel Zamani in Gražina Subelytė and Daniel Zamani. Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity. Exh. cat., Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice. New York, 2022, pp. 104, 256, no. 19, ill. (color) pp. 100 (detail), 126–27 (overall).
Associate Museum Educator Darcy-Tell Morales gives the scoop on making art with natural dyes during The Met's Art Explore program and explains how you can try it at home, too!
Alice Neel (American, Merion Square, Pennsylvania 1900–1984 New York)
1936
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