Through Birds, Through Fire but Not Through Glass

Surrealism Lover Series

Happy Sunday and welcome back to Giselle daydreams! Today, I’m introducing a new Surrealist artist, Yves Tanguy and his thought-provoking painting Through Birds, Through Fire but Not Through Glass. The more I write, the more I think writing about Surrealist artists is something I’d like to cover in much more depth in the future. However, I’d also like to present contemporary artists I admire.

Creativity is that marvelous capacity to grasp mutually distinct realities and draw a spark from their juxtaposition. — Max Ernst

Through Birds, Through Fire, but Not Through Glass is a painting by Yves Tanguy, a key figure in the Surrealist movement. Painted in 1943, this painting embodies several intricate themes rooted in surrealism, psychological exploration, and abstract symbolism. Through Birds, Through Fire, but Not Through Glass touches on concepts that resonate with the human subconscious, emotional barriers, and existential reflections. This work displays Tanguy's signature dreamlike landscapes filled with abstract, organic forms that seem to defy gravity and logical space.

As a Surrealist work, this painting reflects the influence of the unconscious mind and dream states. The title itself suggests a surreal exploration of elements like birds, fire, and glass, which could symbolise barriers, freedom, transformation, or fragility. The organic shapes are suggestive of dream imagery, where objects morph, space distorts, and logic dissolves. The abstract, amorphous forms floating in an otherworldly landscape evoke a dreamlike state where logic and reality are suspended. The use of ambiguous, biomorphic figures may evoke a sense of primal or subconscious fears, desires, or thoughts. The surreal exploration connects with the Surrealist objective of depicting the workings of the subconscious, where the strange and abstract often take form and boundaries between reality and fantasy blur.

The title Through Birds, Through Fire, but Not Through Glass is enigmatic and invites a symbolic interpretation. It also explicitly references the idea of boundaries Birds and fire could represent freedom and transformation, both elements capable of moving through barriers. 

Symbolically, birds are often associated with transcendence, the spiritual realm, or thought. They can represent the mind’s ability to soar beyond the physical realm. Fire might symbolise both destruction and renewal, a transformative force that consumes but also allows for rebirth.

The imagery of birds and fire both carries connotations of change and transformation. Birds, which often symbolise freedom and transcendence, suggest the mind or spirit rising above physical constraints. Fire, often seen as a symbol of destruction and renewal, suggests a transformative force. 

The mention of glass implies an obstacle, a transparent but impenetrable boundary. While birds and fire can transcend certain limits, glass is a barrier that remains impassable. Glass reflects limits in life, whether they are psychological, emotional, or existential, suggesting that while some forces (like birds or fire) can move beyond, others remain obstructed. Glass, though transparent and often fragile, can be a metaphor for unseen but impenetrable limits. This could symbolise how our understanding of certain concepts or aspects of life remains incomplete. We may see and grasp ideas but are blocked from fully comprehending or accessing their deeper truths.

The impassable glass represents psychological or emotional boundaries. The glass barrier can also represent the emotional distance between individuals, suggesting that while people may see and understand each other, they cannot always fully connect or break through to deeper levels of understanding. Furthermore, the idea of visible but insurmountable barriers can be interpreted through an existential lens, where the painting reflects on human limitations, mortality, and the constraints of reality. While some elements of life allow for freedom and transformation (like birds and fire), others (represented by glass) remain impenetrable, no matter how close or transparent they seem. Glass as a metaphor might also represent perception — the way we see and experience the world. It allows us to see beyond but not pass through, suggesting that our view of reality is often limited by unseen, transparent barriers.

The contrast between birds (freedom) and glass (confinement) underlines the duality between liberation and imprisonment. While some elements in life seem to represent freedom, others enforce confinement or restrictions. This contrast could be an allegory for the human condition, where the push and pull between freedom and limitations shape our experiences. Through Birds, Through Fire, but Not Through Glass invites a reflection on what it means to experience life with certain freedoms but also certain limits—both tangible and intangible. The viewers are therefore enticed to consider human limitations, mortality, and the boundaries of perception.

The painting features floating, organic, and biomorphic shapes set against a barren, ambiguous background. These forms, typical of Tanguy's style, resemble both living creatures and geological formations, blurring the boundaries between the animate and the inanimate. These forms hover or float in an undefined, otherworldly space, contributing to the unsettling, dreamlike quality, as well as exploring the mind's hidden landscapes. Their smooth, polished surfaces and amorphous structures make them appear alien, yet familiar, as if they inhabit a dream state.

The space in the painting is vast and featureless, with an unclear horizon, creating a sense of boundless void or desolation. The arrangement of the figures appears random, with no discernible logic, contributing to the feeling of a subconscious or surreal plane. This spatial ambiguity intensifies the surreal, out-of-this-world atmosphere.

Tanguy uses a muted colour palette dominated by greys, blues, and soft pastels, giving it a desolate and ethereal atmosphere. These colours enhance the eerie, detached mood of the painting. The light in Tanguy's work often comes from unseen sources, illuminating the bizarre figures and landscapes in a way that enhances the surreal mood. His precise handling of light and shadow creates a delicate, almost misty atmosphere, giving the painting a soft, ethereal quality. The contrast between light and dark also gives the abstract forms a three-dimensional, almost sculptural presence.

The spatial emptiness and disconnection between the abstract floating forms in the empty space suggest feelings of isolation and alienation. Each abstract form seems self-contained, with no interaction between them, heightening the sense of emotional or existential separation. The notion of an invisible but unbreachable barrier, suggested by glass, could reflect the limitations of human experience — our inability to fully understand or communicate our innermost thoughts and feelings. The lack of interaction between the shapes and the desolate landscape evokes a sense of emotional or existential separation, as if the elements are in their own worlds, disconnected from one another.

As with many Surrealist works, the interpretation of Through Birds, Through Fire, but Not Through Glass is open-ended, leaving room for personal reflection. The title, along with the haunting imagery, might suggest themes of obstacles, perception, and the limits of experience. The painting might represent a personal journey, one in which certain thresholds are crossed (birds, fire), but others remain uncrossed (glass). This could imply the boundaries between different states of consciousness, between the conscious and the subconscious mind, or between individual perception and the external world.

Through Birds, Through Fire, but Not Through Glass is a profound exploration of the human psyche, emotional barriers, and the complexities of perception and transformation. It can be seen as a meditation on barriers — both physical and psychological — and the process of transformation. The title and imagery suggest a narrative of passage and limitation, of forces that can transcend some obstacles but are stopped by others.  The painting’s desolate landscape and floating, isolated figures evoke a dreamscape that is both familiar and unsettling, reflecting the surreal exploration of inner states and the unknown. The emotional undertones, combined with the ambiguous forms and title, invite viewers to project their own interpretations, making the work highly personal and evocative. This work is about the nature of perception and experience — how certain things in life are within our grasp, while others remain forever beyond reach, visible but unattainable. Tanguy's mastery of surreal imagery makes this painting a compelling exploration of the mind, transformation, and the unseen limits we encounter. 

Yves Tanguy photographed by Man Ray

Painting is not for me either decorative amusement, or the plastic invention of felt reality; it must be every time: invention, discovery, revelation. — Max Ernst

FIN.