This, perhaps her most famous painting, isn't a dream piece exactly, but it's about dreams--the censorship of dreams! Tanning found male Surrealist painters sexist, with clichéd views of women--and they painted them so. Tanning set out to paint an alternative kind of Surrealism. A lot of her works through the 1940s show girls' uncensored fantasies and dreams--uneasy, pansexual, perverse, but always passionate. I find them stronger than the guys' stuff.

It's distinctly autobiographical. She grew up in the Midwest, where sunflowers were a familiar crop. In her house, so was repression.

Other paintings from this phase: Children's Games, Palaestra (caution, even kinkier vibe) and perhaps even Avatar.

--Chris Wayan

IMAGE SOURCE: Dorothea Tanning ed. by Alyce Mahon (2018), p.112-13.

World Dream Bank homepage - Art gallery - New stuff - Introductory sampler, best dreams, best art - On dreamwork - Books
Indexes: Subject - Author - Date - Names - Places - Art media/styles
Titles: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - IJ - KL - M - NO - PQ - R - Sa-Sk - Sl-Sz - T - UV - WXYZ
Email: wdreamb@yahoo.com - Catalog of art, books, CDs - Behind the Curtain: FAQs, bio, site map - Kindred sites