Dorothea Tanning is one of the last living members of the Surrealist movement. After studdying briefly at the Art Institute of Chicago School in 1930, she went to New York City where she learned about art by going to galleries and studying the art on exhibit. She was deeply impressed by an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, "Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism" (1936), and this impelled her towards painting (she was also a sculptor, writer, stage designer, model, and movie actress). After meeting Max Ernst in 1942 at the Julien Levy Gallery, she became part of the group of exiled Surrealists living in New York during World War II. Her first one-woman exhibition took place at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1944. Although she married Max Ernst in 1946, his work had no perceivable influence on her. Beginning in the late 1930s, she painted young women and their sexual fears and fantasies in a hyper-realistic way; beginning in the 1950s, however, her work became more abstract with sexual and viol;ent images not quite clearly discernable. Despite the well-known photograph of Tanning and Ernst in Arizona, they spent much of their time in France from the late 1940s until his death. She is consequently much better known in Europe than in the U.S., though she is finally beginning to be as well known in her native country as in her adopted one. The deluxe art review, XXeme Siècle devoted a special number to an Homage to Dorothea Tanning (which included an original lithograph by Joan Miró in her honor).
Bibliography: General works: Jean Christophe Bailly & Robert C. Morgan, Dorothea Tanning, trans. Richard Howard (NY: G. Braziller, 1995); Alain Bosquet, La Peinture de Dorothea Tanning (Paris: Pauvert, 1966); Peter Schamoni, Max Ernst. Maximiliana. The Illegal Practice of Astronomy. Hommage a Dorothea Tanning (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1974); Dorothea Tanning, Another Language of Flowers (NY: George Braziller, 1998); Dorothea Tanning, Birthday: A Memoir (San Francisco: The Lapis Press, 1986); Centre national d art contemporain. Dorothea Tanning (Paris: CNAC, 1974); XXeme Siècle, Homage to Dorothea Tanning (Paris, 1977; in addition to Miró's lithograph [Cramer 233] and lithographs dedicated to her by André Masson and Roberto Matta, contributors to the volume include André Breton, John Cage, Joseph Corness, Max Ernst, Pontus Hulton, James Lord, André Masson, Roland Penrose, John Russell, Patrick Waldberg, Robert Penn Warren, and others); Patrick Waldberg, Dorathea Tanning et les enfants de la nuit (Brussells: 1967); Sarah Wilson, Dorothea Tanning. Between Lives—works on paper (London: Runkel-Hue-Williams Ltd., 1989).
Prints: Dorothea Tanning, Hail Delirum- A Catalogue Raisonne of the Artist's Illustrated Books and prints, 1942-1991 (NY: NY Public Library, 1992).
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Etched Murmurs (T. 304). Original color etching, 1984. 25 signed and numbered impressions. Printed at The Litho Shop in Santa Monica, this print is from the Sam Francis estate.. Image size: 314x210mm. Price: SOLD
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Etched Murmurs (see T. 304). Original etching, 1984. 30 signed and numbered impressions. Printed at The Litho Shop in Santa Monica, this print is from the Sam Francis estate.. Image size: 314x210mm. Price: SOLD.
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Spaightwood Galleries, Inc.
To purchase, call us at 1-800-809-3343 (508-529-2511 in Upton MA & vicinity) or send an email to sptwd@verizon.net. We accept AmericanExpress, DiscoverCard, MasterCard, and Visa.
For directions and visiting information, please call. We are, of course, always available over the web and by telephone (see above for contact information). Click the following for links to past shows and artists. For a visual tour of the gallery, please click here. For information about Andy Weiner and Sonja Hansard-Weiner, please click here. For a list of special offers currently available, see Specials.
Visiting hours: Noon to six Saturdays and Sundays; other times by arrangement. Please call to confirm your visit. Browsers and guests are welcome.
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