WHAT AN AMAZING SHOW. I just went to the dorothea tanning exhibition at tate modern after my flat mate Nadia recommended it to me. We were both interested in surrealism etc, and I think it would be helpful to my essay as well. And it was very useful. I’m surprised I haven’t come across her work before, especially with her close ties and marriage to max ernst. The first rooms were painted in a more realistic fashion depicting fantastic scenes, which is what I expected and have always wished I could paint like- but the rest of the rooms she began to paint in more abstract ways, where figures were half hidden. She said she wishes the viewer to realise the image slowly, like a shimmer, kaleidoscope. I really liked these rooms as well. The more ‘claustrophobic’ paintings with figures that were sort of children were quite whimsical and dark. Towards the end of her career she also turned to poetry and soft sculptures. I liked every part of this exhibition, thought it was curated very well. Her dog repeatedly made an appearance in her paintings, which I thought was genius. The room about ‘maternity’ was quite raw. She was never a mother herself but she talked about maternity more broadly, as in giving birth to a piece of work. and described the canvas as something so fragile. I still haven’t painted on canvas yet here, and I’m thinking perhaps I should ... anyway, as nadia predicted this was super inspiring to me, looking at her colour schemes brushstrokes composition and how her ideas are conveyed. I cannot wait to go back into the studio and fix my painting. Overall, I really enjoyed the exhibition and I find that it would probably help my essay as well, on surrealist painters.
