 Birthday, 1942 MORE INFO |
 Children's Games, 1942 MORE INFO |
 Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 1943 MORE INFO |
 Portrait of Muriel Levy, 1943 MORE INFO |
 A Mrs. Radcliffe Called Today, 1944 MORE INFO |
 Self-Portrait, 1944 MORE INFO |
 The Truth About Comets, 1945 MORE INFO |
 Guardian Angels, 1946 MORE INFO |
 Fatala, 1947 MORE INFO |
 Palaestra, 1949 MORE INFO |
 Maternity, 1947 MORE INFO |
 Max in a Blue Boat, 1947 MORE INFO |
 A Very Happy Picture, 1947 MORE INFO |
 On Time Off Time, 1948 MORE INFO |
 The Mirror, 1950 MORE INFO |
 Musical Chairs, 1951 MORE INFO |
 Interior with Sudden Joy, 1951 MORE INFO |
 La Rose et le Chien (The Rose and the Dog), 1952 MORE INFO |
 The Philosophers, 1952 MORE INFO |
 Dimanche après-midi (Sunday Afternoon), 1953 MORE INFO |
 Death and the Maiden, 1953 MORE INFO |
 Intérieur (Interior), 1953 MORE INFO |
 Portrait de famille (Family Portrait), 1954 MORE INFO |
 Tableau vivant (Living Picture), 1954 MORE INFO |
 Nue endormie (Sleeping Nude), 1954 MORE INFO |
 Le Mal oublié (The Ill Forgotten), 1955 MORE INFO |
 Vorace veracité, 1956 MORE INFO |
 Tempête en jaune (Tempest in Yellow), 1956 MORE INFO |
 Insomnies (Insomnias), 1957 MORE INFO |
 Melées Nocturnes, 1958 MORE INFO |
 Midi et demi (Half Past Noon), 1957 MORE INFO |
 The Moonstone Effect, 1959 MORE INFO |
 Chiens de Cythère (Dogs of Cythera), 1963 MORE INFO |
 La Chienne et sa muse (The Dog and Her Muse), 1964 MORE INFO |
 Far From, 1964 MORE INFO |
 Pelote d'épingles pouvant servir de fétiche (Pincushion to Serve as Fetish), 1965 MORE INFO |
 To the Rescue, 1965 MORE INFO |
 Tirage au sort (Lottery), 1967 MORE INFO |
 L’Avant-garde (The Avant-garde), 1966 MORE INFO |
 Même les jeunes filles (Even the Young Girls), 1966 MORE INFO |
 Étreinte, 1969 MORE INFO |
 Ténèbres (Shadows), 1969 MORE INFO |
 Philosophie en plein air (Fresh-air Philosophy), 1969 MORE INFO |
 Canapé en temps de pluie (Rainy-Day Canapé), 1970 MORE INFO |
 Nue couchée (Reclining Nude), 1970 MORE INFO |
 Hôtel du Pavot, Chambre 202 (Poppy Hotel, Room 202), 1973 MORE INFO |
 Reality, 1973 MORE INFO |
 Pour Gustave l'adoré, 1974 MORE INFO |
 Murmurs, 1976 MORE INFO |
 Faith, Surrounded by Hope, Charity, and Other Monsters, 1976 MORE INFO |
 Portrait de famille (Family Portrait), 1977 MORE INFO |
 Notes for an Apocalypse, 1978 MORE INFO |
 Salut, délire! (Hail, Delirium!), 1979 MORE INFO |
 Still in the Studio, 1979 MORE INFO |
 Heartless, 1980 MORE INFO |
 Pounding Strong, 1981 MORE INFO |
 Door 84, 1984 MORE INFO |
 Nude Standing Nude, 1986 MORE INFO |
 Woman Artist, Nude, Standing, 1987 MORE INFO |
 To Climb a Ladder, 1987 MORE INFO |
 Poppies, 1987 MORE INFO |
 On Avalon, 1987 MORE INFO |
 Blue Mom, 1994 MORE INFO |
 Zephirium apochripholiae (Windwort), 1997 MORE INFO |
 Pictor mysteriosa (Burnt Umbrage), 1997 MORE INFO |
 Convolotus alchemelia (Quiet-willow window), 1998 MORE INFO |
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
Notes for an Apocalypse, 1978
Oil on canvas, 50 x 62 in.
The Museum of Modern Art, NY
Dorothea Tanning: Insomia – a short film made in 1978 by the German director Peter Schamoni – offers the opportunity to hear the artist's observations about her life and work and to see her in her home and studio in Seillans, France. The film can be viewed on Vimeo, courtesy of the Schamoni Film & Media Archive in Munich.
He told us, with the years, you will come
to love the world.
And we sat there with our souls in our laps,
and comforted them.
– Dorothea Tanning, 2004
The Dorothea Tanning Foundation together with its partner The Destina Foundation wish everyone good health and safety during this difficult time. As many museums and galleries close temporarily to protect the public against COVID-19, we encourage you to enjoy their art and exhibitions through their websites, video tours, and publications. The following are some of these current and upcoming celebrations of the work of Dorothea Tanning:
Kasmin Gallery in New York presents "Protean," a group show in its online viewing room through June 8, 2020. The exhibition brings together a selection of post-war and contemporary works that contemplate states of emergence or transmutation, the primordial development of language and symbols, and the nature of the spiritual and the material world. Among the works on view is the drawing Different People (1986).
"Fantastic Women: Surreal Worlds from Meret Oppenheim to Frida Kahlo" is extended at the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt through July 5, after which it will travel to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark. The show can also be explored through a digital version of the exhibition, a video tour, and a fully illustrated catalogue. Among the 260 works by 34 international female artists gathered to reveal the underrecognized breadth and depth of their contribution to Surrealism are eight paintings by Dorothea Tanning, including Still in the Studio (1979).
The Centraal Museum in Utrecht has organized "The Tears of Eros: Moesman, Surrealism, and the Sexes," which is scheduled to reopen June 1 through through August 16. The exhibition examines the work of the Dutch Surrealist Johannes Moesman (1909-1988), who explored sexual fantasy and transgression in his art, in the context of Surrealist works from his own time through the present day. The show includes the sculptures Pelote d'épingles pouvant servir de fétiche (Pincushion to Serve as Fetish) (1965) and Nue couchée (Reclining Nude) (1969-70).
"Dorothea Tanning: Worlds in Collision" at Alison Jacques Gallery in London has been extended for online viewing while the Gallery remains closed. The exhibition presents works from the 1980s with a focus on imagery of the bicycle as a symbol of the pace of modern technology and the fragility of humankind. Among the works in the show is Further Chaos (1988).
The Menil Collection presents "Photography and the Surreal Imagination" through June 14, although the museum is temporarily closed until further notice. Drawn from both the Menil's holdings and nearby Houston collections, this exhibition considers the tension between documentation and invention and the legacy of Surrealism in modern and contemporary photography. It features the collage Still Calling Still Hoping (1988), which has recently entered The Menil Collection and includes a photocopy of the artist's own hand.
“Dorothea Tanning: Printmaker” at Farleys House & Gallery, the historic home of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose in Muddles Green, East Sussex, has been postponed until dates yet to be determined. The exhibition will focus on the artist's graphic works, presented in a setting she knew well from numerous visits to see her friends the Penroses. Among the works will be the etching Nue Couchée (Reclining Nude) (1965).
"Beyond Realism: Dada and Surrealism" celebrates highlights from the collection of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. Though the Gallery is termporarily closed, the installation is scheduled through October 25. It includes over 40 works that explore one or both of the two principal appraoches of Surrealist art: the first form that relies upon unpremeditated or chance effects, and the second that offers apparently irrational images in a realistic style. The exhibition includes the Gallery's newly acquired painting Tableau Vivant (Living Picture) (1954).
"Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser" at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, will explore Lewis Carroll's classic text Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland from its origins through 157 years of adaptations and reinventions. This immersive and theatrical show is scheduled to be on view June 27, 2020 - January 10, 2021, but may be postposed due to the COVID-19 closure. It will include the painting Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (1943).
The Getty Museum in Los Angeles has created an online crowd-sourced exhibition through its Getty Challenge on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Together with the Instagram accounts Tussen Kunst & Quarantaine and Between Art and Quarantine, the challenge invites participants to pick their favorite artwork and recreate it using three items found in their homes. Examples include recreations of the paintings Birthday (1942), The Blue Waltz (1954), La Truite au blue (Poached Trout) (1952), and Death and the Maiden (1953).
Victoria Carruthers has published Dorothea Tanning: Transformations, released by Lund Humphries. A definitive study of the artist's life and career, this monograph provides a framework within which to consider the range and depth of Tanning's work and thematic preoccupations. The book is extensively illustrated and features previously unpublished material from interviews which the author conducted with the artist between 2000 and 2009.
Claire-Louise Bennett has written Fish Out of Water, published as one of Juxta Press's Words for Portraits series of essays and short stories by English- and Italian-language authors based a portrait of their choice. Drawing inspiration from the painting Self-Portrait (1944), the book is a meditation on the affinity the author finds with the artist in her life and work. The author can be heard speaking about the book in an interview What the Hell/Heaven Are We Doing? – Claire-Louise Bennett.
A new catalogue, Max Ernst – D-paintings – Zeitreise der Liebe, has just been published by the Max Ernst Museum Brühl of the LVR in conjuntion with an exhibition on view through March 22, 2020. The exhibition and catalogue celebrate a set of paintings created by Ernst from the time he first met Dorothea Tanning in 1942 until his death in 1976. Every year Ernst gave Tanning a work for her birthday, almost always hiding the letter D for Dorothea. Dr. Jürgen Pech examines all 36 "D-paintings" together with important contemporaneous works by Tanning and numerous photographs, letters, and other documents in a fully illustrated double biography that portrays their extraordinary love story.
De kloof – een weekend, a Dutch language version of Dorothea Tanning's novel Chasm: A Weekend, has been publiished by Uitgeverij Orlando, Amsterdam.
Catriona McAra, University Curator at Leeds Arts University, has published "Glowing Like Phosphorus: Dorothea Tanning and the Sedona Western" in Journal of Surrealism and the Americas (10:1 [2019], pp. 84-105). In this article, Dr. McAra examines the emergence of the Hollywood Western as a formidable pop cultural format during the 1940s-50s, and the complex role it played in the surrealist art and literature from that period. The author examines the work of Ernst and Tanning created during their time living in Sedona, Arizona, where filmmakers were also drawn to the iconic red rock landscape.
The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid has published a fully illustrated catalogue in conjunction with the exhibition "Dorothea Tanning: Behind the Door, Another Invisible Door." The catalogue includes essays by exhibition curator Alyce Mahon, who gives an overview of the artist's career, and Tate curator Ann Coxon, who explores Tanning's work in light of the legacies of Surrealism and contemporary art practice. The catalogue is published in Spanish and English.
We are looking for information about a number of paintings in the effort to fully document Dorothea Tanning's work for a catalogue raisonné. If you have seen any of these paintings, please contact us.
