BIOGRAPHY
A painter, sculptor, illustrator, stage designer, and writer, Dorothea Tanning studied at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1932 before moving to New York City. There, the exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at the MOMA inspired her to devote her attention becoming a painter. After meeting Max Ernst in 1942, and under the artistic influence of René Magritte, she became part of the group of exiled Surrealists living in New York during World War II. Her pieces such as Birthday (1942), Children’s Games (1942), Eine Kleine Nachtmusik(1943) reflect a strange, fractured yet poetic style of living. Her first one-woman exhibition took place at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1944.
To support herself in the 1940s, she worked as an advertising illustrator for Macy’s, and some of her paintings express an affinity with the conventions of fashion advertising (see Endgame, 1944; Drawing for Musical Chairs, 1949). In 1946 Tanning married Ernst and moved with him to Sedona, AZ, where she began painting large, semi-abstract compositions as well as images of playful, eroticized young women such as Palaestra (1947) and La Chambre d’Amis (1952).
Tanning’s work of the 1970s includes a group of stuffed fabric sculptures. They vary from recognizable subjects as in La Table Tragique (1974) to bodily shapes suggesting Surrealism’s obsession with metamorphosis and latent eroticism. A room-sized exhibit of these pieces, Chambre 202, Hotel du Pavot, was permanently installed in the Musée National d’Art Moderne (Paris) in 1974. Tanning also created theatrical designs for The Night Shadow (1946) and The Witch (1950), choreographed by John Cranko, as well as productions of the New York City Ballet in 1952 and 1953. In 1977, her novel Abyss was published in New York. Finally, Dorothea Tanning's two volumes of poetry, written very late in her life (in her 90s), received critical acclaim; this simply proved the formidable intellect and sensitivity of an artist who could achieve so much in so many different mediums, refusing to be pigeonholed by any single style.
A painter, sculptor, illustrator, stage designer, and writer, Dorothea Tanning studied at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1932 before moving to New York City. There, the exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at the MOMA inspired her to devote her attention becoming a painter. After meeting Max Ernst in 1942, and under the artistic influence of René Magritte, she became part of the group of exiled Surrealists living in New York during World War II. Her pieces such as Birthday (1942), Children’s Games (1942), Eine Kleine Nachtmusik(1943) reflect a strange, fractured yet poetic style of living. Her first one-woman exhibition took place at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1944.
To support herself in the 1940s, she worked as an advertising illustrator for Macy’s, and some of her paintings express an affinity with the conventions of fashion advertising (see Endgame, 1944; Drawing for Musical Chairs, 1949). In 1946 Tanning married Ernst and moved with him to Sedona, AZ, where she began painting large, semi-abstract compositions as well as images of playful, eroticized young women such as Palaestra (1947) and La Chambre d’Amis (1952).
Tanning’s work of the 1970s includes a group of stuffed fabric sculptures. They vary from recognizable subjects as in La Table Tragique (1974) to bodily shapes suggesting Surrealism’s obsession with metamorphosis and latent eroticism. A room-sized exhibit of these pieces, Chambre 202, Hotel du Pavot, was permanently installed in the Musée National d’Art Moderne (Paris) in 1974. Tanning also created theatrical designs for The Night Shadow (1946) and The Witch (1950), choreographed by John Cranko, as well as productions of the New York City Ballet in 1952 and 1953. In 1977, her novel Abyss was published in New York. Finally, Dorothea Tanning's two volumes of poetry, written very late in her life (in her 90s), received critical acclaim; this simply proved the formidable intellect and sensitivity of an artist who could achieve so much in so many different mediums, refusing to be pigeonholed by any single style.
RESOURCES
1. "Windwort" from Another Language of Flowers
2. Works of art by Dorothea Tanning in the Crystal Bridges Museum main collection:
The Truth About Comets
1. "Windwort" from Another Language of Flowers
2. Works of art by Dorothea Tanning in the Crystal Bridges Museum main collection:
The Truth About Comets
REFERENCES
Biography adapted from Whitney Chadwick and Amy Lyford. "Tanning, Dorothea." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T083275>.
Artwork behind title: Tanning's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (detail)
Biography adapted from Whitney Chadwick and Amy Lyford. "Tanning, Dorothea." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T083275>.
Artwork behind title: Tanning's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (detail)
