Gallery Wendi Norris Presents an Exhibition Centered Around Two Rare Paintings by Dorothea Tanning — Gallery Wendi Norris

Eli Anapur
March 6, 2024

Dorothea Tanning (1910 - 2012) was among the leading modern artists who built her name in painting, sculpture, and writing. Working both in the US and Paris, she became acquainted early on with avant-gardes, adopting a Surrealist aesthetic and experimental approach to painting. Spanning over seven decades, Tanning's career covers most of the 20th century, leaving behind an impressive oeuvre of over 400 paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures, widely exhibited in the US and abroad.

Following the presentations at landmark retrospectives at the Museo Reina Sofía and the Tate Modern, two of Tanning's paintings — Musical Chairs (1951) and Door 84 (1984) — will be presented at Gallery Wendi Norris in San Francisco, alongside contemporary sculptural chairs in a playful and immersive exhibition that spans periods and artistic styles.

Musical Chairs

Musical Chairs from 1951 shows an adolescent girl who slides from a high-back chair into the swathes of golden cloth. Assuming a cat-like posture, the girl seems unfazed by the opulence of her surroundings. The painting presents a contrast between vigour and serenity, with planes of fabric being among Dorothea Tanning's recognizable motifs. She was successful in blending different influences, from Gothic literature and design to ballet productions and abstraction.

The painting will be presented for the first time in the US in 70 years.

"I am honored to present Tanning's masterpiece, Musical Chairs, which is one of her most significant paintings currently held in a private collection. With each of the five exhibitions my gallery has presented for Tanning since 2009, we expand the conversation to further champion her ever-important legacy," said Wendi Norris for Widewalls.

Door 84

Another exhibition highlight is Tanning's Door 84, painted 33 years after Musical Chairs. Also more than double in size than Chairs, Door 84 shows a similar yellow palette, presented, however, with more fluid brushstrokes.

Revealing Tanning's obsession with portals and liminal places in full, the painting features an actual door's edge, echoing the found object assemblages by her male counterparts, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.

The door divides the compositions in two, leaving two figures in their separate spaces. The tension is elevated by their gestures, showing them as active actors in their own imprisonment as they block each other from getting to the other side.

Dorothea Tanning at Gallery Wendi Norris

The two paintings are presented alongside sculptural chairs by Rachel Shillander, Chris Wolston, Arflex, Campagna for Roll & Hill, and Orior, artists represented by the leading contemporary design gallery The Future Perfect.

The textures of Tanning's paintings find their echo among chair designs on view, bridging the modern and contemporary and creating an immersive environment for the visitors.

The exhibition Dorothea Tanning: Musical Chairs will be on view at Gallery Wendi Norris in San Francisco from March 8th until May 4th, 2024.