All Hallows' Eve

Be perfect, make it otherwise.
Yesterday is torn in shreds.
Lightning's thousand sulfur eyes
Rip apart the breathing beds.
Hear bones crack and pulverize.
Doom creeps in on rubber treads.
Countless overwrought housewives,
Minds unravelling like threads,
Try lipstick shades to tranquillize
Fears of age and general dreads.
Sit tight, be perfect, swat the spies,
Don't take faucets for fountainheads.
Drink tasty antidotes. Otherwise,
You and the werewolf: newlyweds.

Colnaghi Gallery in London presents a special exhibition for Frieze entitled Dreamsongs: from Medicine to Demons to Artificial Intelligence, curated by Bjorn Stern.  The show runs from October 6 –23, and includes the drawing Dream Bikes (1988).

"Fantastic Women: Surreal Worlds from Meret Oppenheim to Frida Kahlo," is open at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark through November 8.  The exhibition presents 250 works by 34 international female artists that reveal the underrecognized breadth and depth of their contri­bu­tion to Surre­alism, including Still in the Studio (1979).

The Menil Collection has extended its exhibition "Photography and the Surreal Imagination" through November 29.  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.

"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).

Alison Jacques Gallery in London has extended its online exhibition of "Dorothea Tanning: Mermaids and Metaphors," which examines the imagery and inspiration found in the painting Pour Gustave l'adoré (1974).

"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 now scheduled to open March 27, 2021, and will include the painting Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (1943).

“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 Summer 2021. 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).

Craig Teicher writes of his personal experience with the artist and "The Later Work of Dorothea Tanning" for "The Daily" blog of The Paris Review.

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. The author discusses the book in an interview found here.

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.

Max Ernst – D-paintings – Zeitreise der Liebe, an exhibition catalogue published by the Max Ernst Museum Brühl, celebrates 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.   

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.

Concerning Wishes (1942)

Le Petit Marquis (1947)

Angel in Mauve and Orange (Study for Anges gardiens) (1947)

Les Infatigables (The Indefatigables) (1965)