Art has always been the raft onto which we climb to save our sanity. I don’t see a different purpose for it now.

Dorothea Tanning, 2002

About Tanning

In 1910 in Illinois, Dorothea Tanning, a soon-to-be-famous American painter, printmaker, sculptor, writer, and poet was born. 

After going through life normally, 2 years into University at Knox, she dropped out and decided to study painting in Chicago. Five years later in 1935, Tanning moved to New York and supported herself as a business doing art commissions while painting her own pieces. Fortunately, while at the 1936 Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition, Tanning came across not only the surrealism concept but also met the Macy’s department store art director who offered to display her work.

Tanning has many talents which also include writing. During the 1990’s/2000’s, her attention went closer into writing and poetry and would continue to do this until her eventual passing.

However, not until she established “The Dorothea Tanning Foundation”. The motive behind this was to maintain her legacy and provide the public with an understanding of her, and all her work.

Her Foundation’s website
https://www.dorotheatanning.org/index

Succeeding the execution of her online foundation, at the age of 101, Tanning, unfortunately, passed away, leaving her as the oldest living surrealism artist, and the memories of an impactful lifetime.

Inspirations/ Early work

Tanning was heavily influenced by surrealism. However, over her long-standing 6-decade career in art, she began to develop her own individual style.

During Tanning’s early earlier years, she read multiple Gothic and Romantic books. These novels had an enormous impact on her artistic style and topics because they were filled with what she calls “imagery of the imaginary”. 

Coming from this influence, she was able to illustrate and reproduce her own dreams onto paper with close attention to detail. 

Specifically looking at one of her most renowned early pieces “Birthday”, which is a self-portrait that was an accurate duplication from one of her dreamlike situations. This was the beginning of many paintings portrayed in an ‘unreal’ setting, some involving erotic subjects, puzzling symbols, and empty space.

The beginning of her own style

Over the span of the 1950s, as Tanning and her paintings advanced, and she started leaning away from surrealism and her own style emerged.

Her paintings appeared more fractured and vibrant. Tanning strayed away from how surrealism had previously portrayed and was initially nicknamed “prism” paintings but was then retitled “Insomnias”.

“Around 1955 my canvases literally splintered… I broke the mirror, you might say”

Dorothea Tanning

Tanning’s work has frequently revolved around the female form and its movements, but around the 1960s was when her work expanded to abstraction and sculptures. Her pieces had barely recognizable aspects to them.

Along the way of her career she was experimenting with doors, wallpaper, and cloth as symbols to signify ethereal realms along with her interest in fluid space and how it creates a place for ‘infinite possibilities’. Tanning’s creations feel like a fever dream.

Hôtel du Pavot, Chambre 202

Wanting to focus on the 3D body in fabric, Tanning commenced on a 5 yearlong “adventure in soft sculpture”.

Hôtel du Pavot, Chambre 202 (1970-73)
https://www.dorotheatanning.org/life-and-work/view/132/

My Thoughts

When I first viewed Tanning’s artwork, I was excited to do some more extensive research on her and the thought processes behind her work.

I think her work is very compelling, especially once I learned about how she views ‘fluid spaces’, and ‘doors’ to other realms. Viewing life in that perspective leaves constant possibilities on how to view the world, and often creates multiple perceptions to it, just as Tanning’s art does. When you look at a piece of her art, the ‘meaning’ is often obscure and produces numerous results.

On Time Off Time (1948)
https://www.dorotheatanning.org/life-and-work/view/241

I’m personally really interested in that type of artwork, so it was hard to stop researching about her (sorry about the length of this blog post).

Heading image cite: https://www.dorotheatanning.org/life-and-work/view/64/

Research cites:

https://www.dorotheatanning.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Tanning

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/tanning-dorothea/

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/feb/08/dangerous-appetites-the-weird-wild-world-of-artist-dorothea-tanning

http://www.artnet.com/artists/dorothea-tanning/

https://theconversation.com/dorothea-tanning-an-unusual-surrealist-with-a-unique-female-gaze-131214

https://www.salon.com/2002/02/11/tanning/