A Journey

College Years

One day when she was around 15, in 1925 or 26, her dad was talking to an old friend, Carl Sandburg. A famous American poet, 3-time Pulitzer prize winner, you could say he knows a little bit about art. Sandberg was shown Tanning’s drawings, stating that he was going to send her to art school when she was older. Sandberg replied with adamant disagreement, saying that art school would stifle her talent and originality. Originally her father agreed with the poet, but due to class and societal expectations of the family, she did go to college for 2 years. She started college in September of 1928, During her time there she stated she felt “Alone. Self-consciously, uncompromisingly alone…Something would happen, had to happen. It filled me up and down, back to front, and my head said that it would spill out cornucopiately onto paper or canvas.” Art in school did stifle her because at the time it didn’t teach you how to make art. It taught you how to compose, mix paints, and think like everybody else. Yes, the mixing paint part is useful but if a bunch of extremely famous painters in history went to or finished art school we wouldn’t have some of the amazing paintings we do. Take for example Egon Schiele, Vincent Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, and Thornton Dial.

Tanning, Dorothea. Between Lives: An Artist and Her World. Northwestern University Press, 2004.

“‘Women's Fraternities’ (Illustration for Knox College Yearbook) - Dorothea Tanning.” Dorothea Tanning - Painter, Sculptor, Writer, https://www.dorotheatanning.org/life-and-work/view/725/.

Meeting Max Ernst

Late December 1942, when Tanning heard knocking on a snowy December day she did not expect Max Ernst to be on the other side of the door. Having met the prior May and being in the same art circle, he came to show her pictures for Thirty Women (later changed to thirty-one women). As they were discussing her newest painting she revealed she did not have a name for the work until Ernst stated “Then you can call it Birthday” and there the title was. Once Ernst saw the chess board it was over for them (and their previous marriages) as they played until it was dark and several days passed same as the one before. Cycling between playing chess and doing advertisement illustrations, feelings began to blossom. In her book, Between Lives: An Artist and Her World, she states “That we were both painters did not strike me at the time as anything but a happy coincidence. In fact, so unbelievable it was, so touched with a kind of graceful humor…I told myself, yes, if it lasts three weeks it is still alright.” Birthday on its own is an amazing painting but the knowledge that this started a very successful and healthy relationship makes it much more than just a painting. 

Tanning, Dorothea. Between Lives: An Artist and Her World. Northwestern University Press, 2004.

“Dorothea Tanning and Max Ernst, Honolulu - Dorothea Tanning.” Dorothea Tanning - Painter, Sculptor, Writer, https://www.dorotheatanning.org/life-and-work/view/751/.

1990 Interview

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/.