{"id":10906,"date":"2012-02-02T02:45:22","date_gmt":"2012-02-02T02:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=10906"},"modified":"2012-02-02T18:02:30","modified_gmt":"2012-02-02T18:02:30","slug":"dorothea-tanning-1910-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2012\/02\/02\/dorothea-tanning-1910-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Dorothea Tanning, 1910\u20132012"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tanning.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Birthday (1942) by Dorothea Tanning.<\/em><\/p>\n

In pre-internet days it always used to surprise me to read that Dorothea Tanning<\/a> was still alive when one seldom heard much about her; Leonora Carrington<\/a> seemed positively hyperactive by comparison. In the end Dorothea outlasted all her Surrealist contemporaries, and the announcement of her death this week sees the passing of that generation of art revolutionaries. Birthday<\/em><\/em> became an immediate favourite when I first encountered it in art books some thirty-odd years ago, and it remains my favourite among her works. John Glassie interviewed her for Salon<\/a> ten years ago when she had this to say about the painting:<\/p>\n

Well, excuse me for this, but \u201cBirthday\u201d is among other dreamlike things, a topless self-portrait. Is it fair to say that at that time, 1942, people thought you were immodest?<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, I was aware it was pretty daring, but that\u2019s not why I did it. It was a kind of a statement, wanting the utter truth, and bareness was necessary. My breasts didn\u2019t amount to much. Quite unremarkable. And besides, when you are feeling very solemn and painting very intensively, you think only of what you are trying to communicate.<\/p>\n

So what have you tried to communicate as an artist? What were your goals, and have you achieved them?<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019d be satisfied with having suggested that there is more than meets the eye.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She also offered a piece of sound advice:<\/p>\n

Keep your eye on your inner world and keep away from ads and idiots and movie stars, except when you need amusement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2022 New York Times<\/em>: Dorothea Tanning, Surrealist Painter, Dies at 101<\/a>
\n\u2022 Coilhouse: \u201cMy work is about leaving the door open to the imagination.\u201d<\/a>
\n\u2022 New York<\/em> magazine: Jerry Saltz on Dorothea Tanning<\/a>
\n\u2022 Guardian<\/em> obituary<\/a> | From 2004: “I’ve always been perverse!”<\/a><\/p>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 Leonora Carrington, 1917\u20132011<\/a>
\n\u2022 Marsi Paribatra: the Royal Surrealist<\/a>
\n\u2022 Dorothea Tanning: Early Designs for the Stage<\/a>
\n\u2022 Angels of Anarchy: Women Artists and Surrealism<\/a>
\n\u2022 The art of Leonor Fini, 1907\u20131996<\/a>
\n\u2022 Surrealist women<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Birthday (1942) by Dorothea Tanning. In pre-internet days it always used to surprise me to read that Dorothea Tanning was still alive when one seldom heard much about her; Leonora Carrington seemed positively hyperactive by comparison. In the end Dorothea outlasted all her Surrealist contemporaries, and the announcement of her death this week sees the … Continue reading “Dorothea Tanning, 1910\u20132012”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,44,18],"tags":[1180,3299,731,167],"class_list":["post-10906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-painting","category-surrealism","tag-dorothea-tanning","tag-john-glassie","tag-leonora-carrington","tag-obituaries"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-2PU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}