Artistic Inspiration: Dorothea Tanning
When I dedicated myself to pursuing art full-time as a career, I made it a priority to study art history more seriously. Specifically, I wanted to focus on female artists, as they’re so often overlooked by art history. One of my favorite female artists is Dorothea Tanning.
Dorothea Tanning, photographed by Marion Kalter in 1981. ©Marion Kalter
Tanning was born in Galesburg Illinois in 1910. After dropping out of Knox college, she moved to Chicago in 1930 to pursue a career as an artist and later moved to New York in 1935. Aside from 3 weeks spent at the Chicago academy of fine art when she first moved there, Tanning was largely self-taught. She worked as a commercial artist while exploring her own style of painting. in 1936, she attended an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art called ‘Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism,’ which introduced her to the surrealist art movement.
Dorothea Tanning, Birthday, 1942, oil on canvas, 40 1/4 x 25 1/2 in./102.2 x 64.8 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art. ©The Estate of Dorothea Tanning
After working on a series of fashion advertisements for Macy’s department store, the art director there introduced her to gallery owner Julien Levy, who would immediately begin to show her work and even introduced her to her future husband, German painter Max Ernst.
Dorothea Tanning, Some Roses and their Phantoms, 1952, oil on canvas, 29 7/8 x 40 1/4 in./76.3 x 101.5 cm, Tate Modern.
As a self-taught artist myself, I see a lot of similarities between our stories and I find her really inspiring. She moved to New York at 25 to take her career as an artist seriously, and at 29 (going on 30!) I just moved to Seattle to open my own private tattoo studio. It’s been an intimidating experience, but knowing that an artist I admire so much did the same thing and was successful gives me courage to continue pursuing my dreams.
For More Information on Dorothea Tanning:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Tanning
https://www.dorotheatanning.org/dorothea-tanning/about-the-artist
