Flying Tanagras

Author: Sofía Bassi

Title: Flying Tanagras (Tanagras volando)

Date: 1965

Material: Oil on masonite

Dimensions: 31.5 × 23.6 inches

Location: Private collection

Rights: Sofía Bassi Foundation

Flying Tanagras (Tanagras volando, 1965) is a striking example of Sofía Bassi’s dreamlike aesthetic, where spectral female figures traverse an ethereal, mountainous landscape. The painting captures the fluidity of motion: the two central figures appear suspended in a perpetual dance with the wind, their garments dissolving into the terrain in a seamless fusion of body and environment. The title’s reference to Tanagras—small terracotta figurines from ancient Greece—invokes classical antiquity and its enduring association with feminine elegance and ritual poise.

As in much of Bassi’s work, the scene is imbued with a surreal, otherworldly atmosphere in which the boundaries between nature and the human form dissolve. The translucent figures echo her broader engagement with metaphysical themes such as the permeability between dimensions, the cyclical nature of transformation, and the survival of archetypal forms across time. Rather than merely reviving antiquity, Bassi mobilizes it as a symbolic reservoir through which to explore timeless states of becoming and the continuity of spiritual presence.