She is known as one of the most influencial surrealist painters of the XXth century, however do we know much beyond that? Let's see what life events had been shaping her always evolving art.
For starters, Tanning was born in Illinois in 1910, where she attended public schools. Funny enough, she skipped two grades in high school and as a result she complained about having weak arithmetic her whole life (thank God painters don't need good maths). In her teenage years, she escaped boring reality of her town, Galesburg, through gothic novels, which later on were her inspiration in the early surrealistic works.
At the age of 20, she moved to Chicago, where she studied at Academy of Fine Art, what surprisingly was her only formal art training. Then, in 1935 she moved to New York where she discovered surrealism at 'Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism' exhibition. Then in 1939 she sailed to Paris hoping to meet surrealists there, however the outbreak of World War II has forced her to come back to NY short after.
Not many know, that in 1941 she got married to a writer, Homer Shannon, but the couple didn't last long (well lucky for her, as she met Max Ernst in 1942). In the meantime, she worked as a commercial artist creating illustrations for fashion magazines. Her talent was spotted by Macy's art director, who introduced her to a gallery owner Julien Levy. Levy had given Dorothea work and later on exhibited her works twice on solo shows. She was the person to introduce Tannign to the surrealist creatives based in NY, and her German husband-to-be, Max Ernst, was among them. At that time he was married to Peggy Guggenheim (yes, from THE Guggenheims), but the romantic relationship between him and Tanning developed quickly enough for the couple to be married by 1946 (apparently they felt in love playing chess).
Then the marriage spent perdiods in Sedona, Paris and the French countryside. Tanning's initial style was focused on details and creating layers, but with every removal, it drifted more towards abstraction. Her works from Sedona contained many half opened doors, which referred to the overwhelming heat by creating alternative reality of idoor spaces. Although, Dorothea and Ernst never had kids, in France she explored the theme of family and motherhoof through her various paintings, such as 'Family Portrait' from 1954 and 'Maternity' from 1946-7.
It is important to mention that beyond paintings, Dorothea has also explored other mediums. In 1945 she met choreographer, George Balanchin with whom she has worked on costume and set design for four ballets. Similairly to her early paintings, they also conveyed a gothic-like sense of darnkess. In 1960s she has started to create soft fabric sculptures, which were in line with the messages she captured in her paintings. Her most iconic work is a room installation 'Hotel du Pavot'. Also, after Max Ernst's death, she returned to NY and alongside creating stuffed figures, she focused on writing. She has created some poetic pieces in her earlier life, such as a tom of poetry tome 'Demain' published in 1964, but it was her mentor James Merill, who pushed her creativity further. You can read her memoir 'Birthday', which refers to her iconic painting or its extended version from 2001 titled 'Between Lives: An Artist and her World'. She has been writing till her death in 2012 and she left her literary legacy by endowing Wallace Stevens Award of the Academy of American Poets. In 1997 The Dorothea Tanning Foundation was founded, which aims to preserve the artist's works and foster a broader public understading of her paintings, sculptures and writing.
The artist has lived an amazing 101 years and in an interview in 1990 when she was complimented on making it 80 years old she replied: 'I intend to push on to 90. Living is so amusing
'.
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