Dorothea Tanning
“Doesn’t the Paint Say It All?”
New York. 509 West 27th Street
Spanning four decades from 1947–1987, and including significant examples on loan from major museum collections and important private collections, the exhibition will trace Tanning’s stylistic arc from its roots in surrealism through interrelated phases of the artist’s career to what became a deeply original and timeless painting practice. Across these bodies of work, Tanning’s unique formal language is characterized by the tension between figuration and abstraction. Her insistence on mystery and enigma encourages an experience of ongoing discovery for the viewer.
DOROTHEA TANNING Ignoti nulla cupido 1960 oil on canvas 32 x 39 inches 81.3 x 99.1 cms
Dorothea Tanning: Doesn’t the Paint Say It All? takes its title from the artist’s own writing, and on the occasion of the exhibition, Kasmin will publish a fully illustrated, scholarly catalogue, featuring Tanning’s essay entitled “To Paint,” a poetic and impassioned text first published in 1986 that resembles a personal manifesto on her own creative process and the nature of the medium. The book will also include reflections on Tanning’s paintings by three art historians and scholars of surrealism: Mary Ann Caws, Katharine Conley, and Victoria Carruthers (author of the recent monograph Dorothea Tanning: Transformations, Lund Humphries, 2020), with an introduction by Pamela S. Johnson, Executive Director of The Dorothea Tanning Foundation and The Destina Foundation. Both endowed by the artist, the foundations have collaborated in the staging of this presentation at Kasmin.
