Dorothea Tanning

Tanning’s unique path into the Surrealist unconscious is unlike that of many other artists associated with the movement, with its group productions and a visual language developed through dictionaries of standardised symbols. Instead, Tanning’s work emerged from a deeply personal and intuitive exploration of inner life, where the subconscious became a realm not of codified imagery but of lived experience.

Such exploration guided her artistic practise and her life, from youth when she taught herself to paint by visiting and taking classes at the Chicago Art Institute (for a mere three weeks), to her post-war adulthood where her art reflected an ongoing dialogue between her private imagination and the broader language of Surrealism, allowing her to carve out a distinct voice in a movement dominated by its male practitioners.

Tanning’s first encounter with the Surrealist world came in 1936 with a visit to the Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (then known as ‘The Modern’). The experience was transformative, shocking her aesthetically and having a decisive influence on the work she would produce throughout her career.

Having received letters of introduction to many of the artists included in the MoMA exhibition, Tanning set off for Paris in 1939, although, on arrival, found the city deserted of artists who had already fled the incoming war. She, too, soon returned to New York at the outbreak of World War II where she joined the circle of émigré Surrealists who had transplanted their community across the Atlantic and began to develop the mature style for which she would become known.

Long fascinated by the tension between the clarity of written description and the fleeting, ambiguous qualities of visual memory, Tanning positioned her art at the threshold between reality and imagination. Her paintings frequently depict recognisable interiors, figures and objects, yet they are infused with an otherworldly charge: curtains ripple with unseen movement, children and animals morph into uncanny hybrids and domestic spaces dissolve into dreamscapes. This fluctuation between heightened awareness of the visible world and sensitivity to unconscious forces became her hallmark, intensified by her extraordinary technical skill.

Recognition came swiftly. In 1943, Peggy Guggenheim included Tanning in the landmark exhibition 31 Women at her New York gallery, a show that sought to highlight the contributions of female artists in a predominantly male Surrealist milieu. Just one year later, Tanning became the first woman to hold a solo exhibition at Julien Levy Gallery, one of the most important venues for Surrealism in America. These milestones announced her as a formidable presence in the international art world.

In 1946, Tanning married the German Surrealist Max Ernst, with whom she shared a deep personal and artistic partnership, yet, for decades, her reputation was overshadowed by Ernst’s canonical fame. Despite this, she continued to forge her own path, producing a remarkable body of paintings, sculptures, prints and writings that stood apart from, yet in dialogue with, the Surrealist canon.

Throughout her long life, Tanning’s work was exhibited widely across Europe and the United States, in both solo and group shows, and she came to be recognised as one of the most significant female voices in Surrealism and beyond. Her influence stretched far beyond the movement’s historical boundaries, inspiring later generations of artists who shared her fascination with the interplay of imagination, memory and the unconscious.