Born Katherine Linn Sage in
1898 into a wealthy and privileged family in Albany, New York, Sage spent
most of her youth traveling throughout Europe. She married a titled Italian,
Prince Ranieri di San Faustino in 1924, but divorced him ten years later.
Her wealth and her association with the bourgeois were stigmas in her
attempt to join the Surrealist movement. However she managed to join in 1937
probably due to her friendship with Yves Tanguy whom she met in Paris and
whom she would later marry. Like many Surrealists, she moved to
America during WWII. Although Peggy Guggenheim expedited things, Kay Sage
underwrote the passage of Max Ernst and André Breton to America. She and Tanguy wedded in 1940 and moved to
Connecticut. After Tanguy died in 1955 and her health began to
deteriorate and she become more and more morose, giving up painting for
nihilistic poetry. She first attempted suicide in 1959. She succeeded in
1963 - with a bullet through her heart.
