Tribute to Dorothea Tanning born on this day, in 1910! Poetess, painter, designer, lover and wife of Max Ernst, muse of Man Ray and Irving Penn, best friends with Lee Miller…
Dorothea Tanning, self portrait « Birthday », 1942, Oil paint on canvas, 102 x 65 cm, private collection.
When speaking about Dorothea Tanning, one must think of Max Ernst. They met thanks to their mutual art dealer, Julian Levy, but it under strange circumstances, also thanks to Peggy Guggenheim, the phenomenon eccentric patron of arts whom had requested from Ernst, whom she had just gotten married to, to visit art studios for the purpose of an exhibition, «Thirty Women», bringing to light young and pretty women artists from Manhattan.
Everything started with this painting, a self portrait where the artist had represented herself as a surreal fairy, bare chest, gaze lost in the distance, skirt of dark roots, which would be the turn on to their mythical union.. Tanning speaks about this life changing visit in the 1986 book « Birthday ». After this meeting, Ernst brook up with Guggenheim and moved in with Tanning. It was the start to the most glamorous artistic collaboration : a life-long love affair… as a couple, Ernst and Tanning were considered as « the most extraordinary of the surrealists. »
Tanning drew inspiration from Gothic and Romantic literature, creating fantastical and dream-like realms to investigate the human form and condition. Over the decades, she maintained an ambition to give form to imaginary worlds, exploring the language of Surrealism. She died in 2012, at the age of 101.
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