Rainy Day Canape by Dorothea Tanning, 1970. This is Tanning’s personal description of Rainy Day Canape found at dorotheatanning.org:
This terribly non-mainstream piece was, more than anything, a challenge to myself, a bet that I made with myself, and only me, that I would give real physical life to a bunch of tweeds and stuffing. Now, when you look at its triumphant? paroxysmic? despairing? physicality you are not quite sure that materials are only tools, that the inert is the inert, that life is something else. But one thing you know: that like you and me and everyone else, this Rainy-Day Canapé will not live for centuries. But how could we care?
1910 - 2012
Seeing as she only died a couple of months ago, it seemed pretty fitting to make Dorothea Tanning my Artist of the Week. She was an American Surrealist who worked in painting, sculpting and costume and theatre set design. In 1946, she married the German Surrealist/Dada painter Max Ernst, though she also worked closely with Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Yves Tanguy and Kay Sage. Her 100th birthday in 2010 led to international exhibitions celebrating her life and art, including one at The Drawing Centre in New York and the Max Ernst Museum in Bruhl, Germany.
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik 1943
In Eine Klein Nachtmusik, one of Tanning’s most recognisable pieces, we are presented with an eerie corridor and a giant fragmenting sunflower. However, it seems to be the two doll-like figures that are of a key interest, according to the Tate:
The doll is remarkably life-like and wears similar clothing to the girl standing nearby. Her status as a toy is only revealed by her hairline and the regularly moulded contours of her torso. The tattered state of the clothes worn by both the doll and the girl suggests that there has been some sort of struggle or encounter with powerful forces, and the girl’s long hair streams upwards as if blasted by an immensely powerful gust of wind. Tanning has said: ‘It’s about confrontation. Everyone believes he/she is his/her drama. While they don’t always have giant sunflowers (most aggressive of flowers) to contend with, there are always stairways, hallways, even very private theatres where the suffocations and the finalities are being played out, the blood red carpet or cruel yellows, the attacker, the delighted victim….’
Tanning’s work is pretty difficult to unpick without some sort of narrative from the artist herself, (much like all of the Surrealists/Dada artists). You can read Tanning’s thoughts about Interior with Sudden Joy at dorotheatanning.org.
Interior with Sudden Joy 1952
Machine Turns by Francis Picabia, 1916. Picabia was a French artist working primarily within the Dada and Surrealist movements. His work frequently looks into the mechanics of relationships and the processes between men and women: see how the cogs in Machine Turns are labelled ‘femme’ and ‘home’, or man and woman. Even though the male cog is far larger than the female one, one cannot turn without the other one first.
Thinking About Death by Frida Kahlo, 1943. Kahlo always looks so regal and elegant in her self portraits, even though her life was full of heartache and physical pain.
Love Song by Giorgio de Chirico, 1914. Chirico was an Italian artist who co-founded the Surrealist inspired movement of Metaphysical Art, along with the Futurist Carlo Carra. Love Song is one of Chirico’s most recognised works.
Daybreak by Joan Miro, 1968. There is something beautifully childlike about this piece by Surrealist Joan Miro, and not just in the colour scheme: I know the title suggests otherwise, but every time I look at it I see a cat, with a red body and a yellow face. And now that I have seen this, I find it very hard to see how it depicts a Daybreak. It’s funny how your mind refuses to see anything else once it has decided on something!
Horse, Pipe and Red Flower by Joan Miro, 1920. Surrealist still lifes really are quite spectacular!
Rendezvous of Friends by Max Ernst, 1922. This group collage by the German Dada/Surrealist Max Ernst includes other artists and prominent figures of the Surrealist movement, such as Andre Breton, Jean Arp, Giorgio de Chirico and Ernst himself.
Self Portrait with Monkey by Frida Kahlo, 1940. Kahlo often used monkeys in her compositions, which represent lust in Mexican symbolism. However, Kahlo’s stiff and stern exterior could suggest that the monkey is more of a protective and even aggressive figure.
1907 - 1954
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter best known for her surreal portraits and figurative images. Because of these images, her face is recognised worldwide and her sad story is narrated throughout her work. Kahlo suffered from polio and, after a terrible accident surrounding a bus crash, she broke her spine, collarbone and pelvis, and her reproductive system become severely damaged after a handrail impaled through her abdomen. Her marriage to Mexican muralist Diego Rivera was also troubled and erratic.
The Two Fridas 1939
The Two Fridas is one of my favourite examples of Kahlo’s self portraits. The two separate depictions of her represent her torn feelings at the imminent demise of her marriage to Rivera, as they divorced in 1939 and later remarried. We can assume that the Frida on the left represents Frida the wife, and the figure on the right is Frida the artist. Notice how the two Fridas hold hands in comfort and unification as Frida the wife cuts open her vein, which would surely connect to Rivera.
However, not all of Kahlo’s self portraits are actual physical representations of her face or body. What the Water Gave Me is a composition of imaginings and hallucinations set in a bathtub. Kahlo’s bisexuality is referenced in the below right image of two nude women reclined on a bed.
What the Water Gave Me 1938
