Birthday
Dorothea Tanning
DOROTHEA TANNING, 1942. OIL ON CANVAS
Dorothea Tanning escaped small-town Illinois to become one of the leading figures in American Surrealism. Yet, her humble origins remain subtly present in her work; her surrealist worlds are grounded in the quiet of the American Midwest. "Birthday" was a landmark painting in her career. Wearing a billowing, self-altered jacket she thrifted from a Shakespeare production, Tanning is playing a character. She reveals little about herself in her depiction of her form; it is the world she situated herself in that is the true self-portrait. She holds a door open for us, which in turn leads to a seemingly infinite expanse of open doors. Her dress turns into an entangled mess of greenery that sprouts fingers, while a small, impossible pet sits ominously at her feet. The house is not grand, but it suggests a world of possibilities. Tanning, across her career, wanted to keep 'the door open to the imagination.' 'You see,' she said, 'enigma is a very healthy thing, because it encourages the viewer to look beyond the obvious and commonplace.