Opening Reception

Saturday, June 1, 2019

6pm to 9pm

Redbud Gallery East is proud to present a selection of paper works from Dorothea Tanning, Louise Bourgeois, Leonora Carrington, Dora Maar, and Toyen.

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The Menil Collection is due to mount a Tanning exhibition this mid-year.  During the launching period of the Gallery, I was fortunate to have Walter Hopps, the Founding Director of The Menil Collection, advise me on many matters related to gallery operations and collecting.  I asked Walter one day, "Who should I collect?"  Without hesitation, he answered, "Female surrealists.  They are undervalued and underappreciated."  I took his advice to heart.

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Developed by Andre Breton in Paris in the early 1920’s, Surrealism is defined as psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, in any manner, the real functioning of thought.

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Tanning, born in Illinois, lived in Paris, then returned to New York upon her marriage to Max Ernst in 1946.  Throughout the mid-1940s and 1950s, Tanning was influenced by Man Ray, Ernst, and others.  Tanning’s works developed into symbolic and feminist Surrealism.  Infused with high coloration, her works are typically filled with suspended motion.  Subtle sexuality flourishes in her art.  The post-war era began to affect Tanning’s work significantly, especially during 1955 when her work radically shifted to reflect facets of consciousness, reality, sleep, dreams, and the mind.

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Many of the etchings in this show are from the portfolio in En chair et en or / In flesh and in gold (Editions Georges Visat, 1973).

Other surrealists in this exhibition include the muse of Salvador Dali, Dora Maar, Louise Bourgeois, Leonora Carrington, and the Czech artist Toyen (Marie Cerminova).

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- Gus Kopriva, Redbud Gallery Owner