Biography

Dorothea Tanning was an American painter, printmaker, sculptor, writer, and poet. Her works primarily focused on surrealism and the female form. She was born August 25th, 1910 in Galesburg, Illinois. Tanning never studied art, and as such was self taught. She started out as a commercial artist in New York, where she worked on her paintings on the side. The piece that first put her into the spotlight was her oil painting and self portrait, Birthday, through which she also met her husband, Max Ernst. Max Ernst was also an artist who focused on surrealism. The two of them fell in love over a game of chess.

The two later moved to Sedona, Arizona, where they built a house together and eventually got married. Not even four years later, they moved to France where they would both work on their art until Ernst’s passing, after which Tanning returned to New York. She focused on writing and poetry, and even earned an award for her poetry. She died on January 31st, 2012, at the age of 101.

Thoughts

I’ve always been interested in surrealism, but I never knew much about it. In a field dominated by men, Tanning stood out to me. Her works evolve throughout her lifetime, going from dream like to fragmented and abstract. I love how she never stuck to one medium, experimenting with every form of art. I also like how a lot of her works reference Alice in Wonderland, as it is a very surreal book on its own. I personally love her 1950s works, where there’s still some representative imagery but also non sensical shapes and forms. Her colors are muted but it works, and in some of her works, the use of light is perfect for focusing the viewer’s attention where you want it.

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

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

https://www.dorotheatanning.org/

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kHDyF0yTdHXrFDtUIS6qxBKfvjkLMY7p?usp=sharing