Critics' Picks “DOROTHEA TANNING: BEHIND THE DOOR, ANOTHER INVISIBLE DOOR”
“DOROTHEA TANNING: BEHIND THE DOOR, ANOTHER INVISIBLE DOOR”
MUSEO NACIONAL CENTRO DE ARTE REINA SOFÍA
Calle de Santa Isabel, 52
October 3 - January 7
Curated by Alyce Mahon
She loved gothic novels, Lewis Carroll’s stories, and Sedona, Arizona. She married Max Ernst, played chess with Marcel Duchamp, and established a firm place in the history of Surrealism. But how can one encapsulate the life of Dorothea Tanning, who went through numerous phases in her career and continued to make work well into the twenty-first century? This compelling retrospective will elucidate, covering nearly seventy years of her oeuvre with more than one hundred paintings, drawings, and soft sculptures—as well as the incredible installation Hôtel du Pavot, Chambre 202, 1970–73, with its eerie protrusions of nude stuffed bodies ripping through the wallpaper. The short answer? Tanning, who passed away in 2012, exploded the Surrealist imagination, added a feminist plot, and made the movement fit for travel—to the great benefit of younger artists, who have been unpacking her works, writings, and ideas ever since.