Dorothea Tanning : multiple realities

Includes bibliographical references (pages 168-177)Dorothea Tanning is an American artist who was born in 1910. She is a\ud very gifted woman artist. Her work, which offers forty years of material\ud for study, is not familiar to the American public. Because her imagery\ud springs from the unconscious, the artist is able to project on canvas, and\ud in her sculptures, aspects of the feminine psyche. Tanning's propensity to\ud paint her interior visions is what attracted her to the Surrealist\ud movement in the early 1940's. Though her known oeuvre dates from the\ud year she became a member of the European Surrealist group, Tanning\ud dislikes being categorised as a Surrealist artist. The purpose of this thesis is twofold: to conduct an interpretive study\ud of Dorothea Tanning's depiction of the female, taking into consideration\ud the social. historical and psychological influences that formed an\ud intergral part of its character; and secondly, to explore the breadth of\ud Surrealism's role in the shaping of Tanning's artistic development