In an interview with Carlo McCormick on October 1st 1990, Tanning was posed with a question about the labelling of women artists, which she responded to with “I wish you wouldn’t harp on that word, “women.” Women artists. There is no such thing—or person. It’s just as much a contradiction in terms as “man artist” or “elephant artist.” You may be a woman and you may be an artist; but the one is a given and the other is you.” talking about surrealists in the 1950’s and forward it is hard to avoid the topic of the gender divide and the focus on women artists at the time. However, with Tanning it was a topic of almost resent as it was deemed to be one of the only “interesting” things about her even though she was considered one of the top surrealist artists in New York City. She was seen as “hard to get along with” from interviewers because all they wanted to talk about was being a woman artist and her late husband. It is like if you specified a woman doctor, or a woman bartender, it doesn’t make sense to specify the gender when the important thing is the art. It was the same thing when Georgia O’keefe denied the invitation to be in Thirty-One Woman, she wanted to be seen as an artist first. It is the same way for male artists, just because a certain gender made the painting it does not effect the quality or talent of the work.

“Dorothea Tanning.” BOMB Magazine, https://bombmagazine.org/articles/dorothea-tanning/.