Table Of ContentA Surrealist Stratigraphy of Dorothea
Tanning’s Chasm
In A Surrealist Stratigraphy of Dorothea Tanning’s Chasm, Catriona McAra offers
the first critical study of the literary work of the celebrated American painter and
sculptor Dorothea Tanning (1910–2012). McAra fills a major gap in the scholarship,
repositioning Tanning’s writing at the centre of her entire creative oeuvre and f ocusing
on a little-known short story “Abyss,” a gothic-flavoured, desert adventure which
Tanning worked on intermittently throughout her creative life, finally publishing it in
2004 as Chasm: A Weekend.
McAra performs a major reassessment of the visual and literary principles upon
which the surrealist movement was initially founded. Combining a groundbreaking
methodological approach with reference to cultural theory and feminist aesthetics as
well as Tanning’s unpublished journals and notes, McAra reveals Tanning as a key
player in contemporary art practice as well as in the historical surrealist milieu.
Dr Catriona McAra is Curatorial and Exhibitions Manager at Leeds College of Art.
She was awarded her doctorate in History of Art at the University of Glasgow (2012)
and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the
Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh (2013–14).
Studies in Surrealism
Series Editor: Gavin Parkinson, The Courtauld Institute of Art
With scholarly interest in Surrealism greater than ever, Ashgate Studies in Surrealism
serves as a major forum for key areas of inquiry into the activities of the Surrealist
movement. The series extends the ongoing academic and popular interest in Surrealism,
evident in recent studies that have rethought established areas of Surrealist activity
and engagement, including those of art, politics, the object, exhibitions, photography,
popular culture, crime and science. Expanding and adding to existing lines of inquiry,
books in the series examine Surrealism’s intersections with philosophical, social,
artistic and literary themes.
1 Maruja Mallo and the Spanish Avant-Garde
Shirley Mangini
2 Children’s Stories and ‘Child-Time’ in the Works of Joseph Cornell and the
Transatlantic Avant-Garde
Analisa Leppanen-Guerra
3 Ludics in Surrealist Theatre and Beyond
Vassiliki Rapti
4 Found Sculpture and Photography from Surrealism to Contemporary Art
Edited by Anna Dezeuze and Julia Kelly
5 Surrealism and Photography in Czechoslovakia
On the Needles of Days
Krzysztof Fijalkowski, Michael Richardson, and Ian Walker
6 Reading Claude Cahun’s Disavowals
Jennifer L. Shaw
7 Consuming Surrealism in American Culture
Dissident Modernism
Sandra Zalman
8 Sacred Surrealism, Dissidence and International Avant-Garde Prose
Vivienne Brough-Evans
A Surrealist Stratigraphy of
Dorothea Tanning’s Chasm
Catriona McAra
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Catriona McAra
The right of Catriona McAra to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Title: A surrealist stratigraphy of Dorothea Tanning’s Chasm / Catriona McAra.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2016. | Series: Studies in surrealism |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016026056 (print) | LCCN 2016041037 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781472463449 (alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315390581
Subjects: LCSH: Tanning, Dorothea, 1910-2012 Chasm. | Surrealism (Literature)
Classification: LCC PS3620.A695 C476 2016 (print) | LCC PS3620.A695 (ebook) |
DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016026056
ISBN: 978-1-4724-6344-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-39058-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by diacriTech, Chennai
Contents
List of illustrations vii
Acknowledgements xi
Cast list and key scenes xiii
Introduction: Excavating an abyss: From manuscript
to novel (1947–2004) 1
1 Unpacking Tanning’s library 17
2 The alternative reality of Sedona 34
3 Surrealism in the attic 62
4 The fur of the fairy tale 86
5 Quoting “Tanning”: Surrealist heirlooms in contemporary practice 93
Bibliography 106
Appendices 114
Index 126
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Illustrations
Illustration list
Copyrights for all artworks and texts by Dorothea Tanning are held by the family of
the artist and published here courtesy The Dorothea Tanning Foundation, New York.
Artworks © DACS, London/ADAGP, Paris. All rights reserved.
Colour plates
1 Dorothea Tanning, Tempête en jaune (Tempest in Yellow), 1956.
Oil on canvas, 96.5 × 147 cm. Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
2 Dorothea Tanning, Katchina Coquette, 1954. Oil on canvas,
35 × 27 cm. Private collection, London.
3 Dorothea Tanning, Evening in Sedona, 1976. Oil on canvas,
114 × 146 cm. The Destina Foundation, New York.
4 Dorothea Tanning, Une lacune à combler (A Gap to Be Filled), 1963.
Oil on canvas, 116.2 × 91.4 cm. Private collection, Paris.
5 Dorothea Tanning, Septième péril (Seventh Peril) from Les 7 périls
spectraux (The Seven Spectral Perils), 1950. Lithograph,
36.2 × 26.8 cm.
6 Dorothea Tanning, Intérieur (Interior), 1953. Oil on canvas,
46 × 38 cm. Collection Mme. Claude Hersaint, Paris.
7 Dorothea Tanning, Interior with Sudden Joy, 1951. Oil on canvas,
61 × 90.8 cm. Collection Selma Ertegun, New York.
8 Dorothea Tanning, Victory, 2005. Burnt toast, graphite and crayon
on black paper with antique frame, 24.8 × 29.7 × 3.8 cm. The Destina
Foundation, New York.
viii Illustrations
Figures
1.1 Dorothea Tanning, Premier péril (First Peril) from Les 7 périls spectraux
(The Seven Spectral Perils), 1950. Lithograph, 36.8 × 27.6 cm. 17
1.2 Postcard of Galesburg Public Library, 14 × 9 cm. 18
1.3 Max Ernst, ‘Max Ernst’s Favorite Poets and Painters of the Past’ in
View Magazine, Special Max Ernst Edition, edited by
Charles Henri Ford, Series II, No. 1 (April 1942): pp. 14–15.
© ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2016. 20
1.4 Dorothea Tanning, Portefeuille (Pocketbook), 1946. Oil on board,
21.6 × 15.2 cm. The University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson. 21
1.5 Dorothea Tanning, Poem, 1987. Lithograph, 75.8 × 53.7 cm. 24
1.6 Dorothea Tanning, Emma, 1970. Fabric, wool, and lace, 29.5 x 64.5 ×
54.9 cm. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. 27
1.7 Dorothea Tanning, De quel amour (By What Love), 1969. Tweed,
metal, wool, chain, and plush, 178 × 48 × 60 cm. Musée National
d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. 29
2.1 Lee Miller, Dorothea Tanning and Max Ernst in Sedona, 1946.
© Lee Miller Archives, England 2016. All rights reserved.
www.leemiller.co.uk 34
2.2 Montezuma Castle National Monument. Photograph by the author. 36
2.3 Dorothea Tanning, Hotel, 1988. Collage with photocopy and
watercolour on paper, 49.5 × 64.8 cm. The Destina Foundation,
New York. 36
2.4 Brewer Road, 2012. Photography courtesy of Mimi Johnson. 38
2.5 Lee Miller, Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning, 1946. © Lee Miller
Archives, England 2016. All rights reserved. www.leemiller.co.uk 41
2.6 Lee Miller, Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning, 1946. © Lee Miller
Archives, England 2016. All rights reserved. www.leemiller.co.uk 41
2.7 Maxfield Parrish, Arizona, 1930. First published as an illustration for
the Ladies Home Journal (October 1930). © Maxfield Parrish Family,
LLC/VAGA, NY/DACS, London 2016. 43
2.8 Dorothea Tanning, Sunflower Landscape, 1943. Oil on canvas,
35.6 × 27.9 cm. Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of
Nebraska, Lincoln. 43
2.9 Joseph Cornell, Untitled, n.d. (early 1960s). Collage.
© The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation/VAGA,
NY/DACS, London 2016. 44
2.10 Dorothea Tanning, Arizona Landscape, 1943. Oil on canvas,
27.94 × 20.32 cm. Private collection, New York. 45
Illustrations ix
2.11 Dorothea Tanning, Self-Portrait, 1944. Oil on canvas, 61 × 76 cm.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. 45
2.12 Dorothea Tanning, Simplified Botany – The Land, 1943.
Ink on illustration board, 47 × 35.6 cm. Collection of Ira
and Gale Drukier, New York. Photography courtesy of the
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University. 48
2.13 Dorothea Tanning, Evening in Sedona (detail), 1976. Oil on canvas,
114 × 146 cm. The Destina Foundation, New York. 49
2.14 Illustrated postcard (featuring photography by Bob Bradshaw), 5 January
1978, from Dorothea Tanning, Sedona, Arizona, to Roland Penrose.
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. 49
2.15 Dorothea Tanning, Étreinte (Embrace), 1969. Wool flannel and fake
fur stuffed with wool, 93 × 118 × 60 cm. The Destina Foundation,
New York. 53
3.1 Dorothea Tanning, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 1943. Oil on canvas,
41 × 61 cm. © Tate, London 2016. 62
3.2 Joseph Cornell, Setting for a Fairy Tale, c. 1942. Box construction,
29.4 × 36.6 × 9.9 cm. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation Peggy
Guggenheim Collection, Venice, 1976. Art. Photo: David Heald.
© The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation/VAGA,
NY/DACS, London 2016. 67
3.3 Dorothea Tanning, Some Roses and Their Phantoms, 1952.
Oil on canvas, 75.9 × 102.2 cm. © Tate, London 2016. 71
3.4 Joseph Cornell, Untitled (Bébé Marie), early 1940s. Museum of Modern
Art (MoMA). Papered and painted wood box, with painted corrugated
cardboard floor, containing doll in cloth dress and straw hat with cloth
flowers, dried flowers, and twigs, flecked with paint, 23 1/2 × 12 3/8 ×
5 1/4 (59.7 × 31.5 × 13.3 cm). Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss
Bequest. 682.1980 © 2016. Digital image, The Museum of Modern
Art, New York/Scala, Florence. © The Joseph and Robert Cornell
Memorial Foundation/VAGA, NY/DACS, London 2016. 72
3.5 Dorothea Tanning, Daughters, 1983. Oil on canvas, 130 × 97 cm.
Private Collection, London. 73
3.6 Dorothea Tanning, Hôtel du Pavot, Chambre 202 (Poppy Hotel,
Room 202), 1970–73. Fabric, wool, synthetic fur, cardboard, and
Ping-Pong balls, 340 × 310 × 470 cm. Musée National d’Art Moderne,
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. 77
3.7 Dorothea Tanning, Door 84, 1984. Oil on canvas with found door,
162 x 264.2 × 13.3 cm overall. The Destina Foundation, New York. 79
3.8 Dorothea Tanning, Portrait de famille (Family Portrait), 1953–54. Oil on
canvas, 100 × 81 cm. Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges
Pompidou, Paris. 80
