Frise constituée de 6 dessins originaux de Dorothea Tanning

 

Exceptional frieze of 6 original erotic drawings by American Surrealist artist Dorothea Tanning, wife of Max Ernst, in pencil and watercolor on a long strip of papier japon.

 

On the right, the word "LOVE" inscribed by the artist (close to the famous motif of Robert Indiana, created at the same time) along with her signature. Under each drawing, Tanning inscribed words forming the following message: "Listen my friend / I miss you / Also / Will we see each other / In Paris?" [Ecoute mon amie / Tu me manque (sic) / Aussi / Se verra t'on / à Paris ?]. Folds between each drawing, as the frieze was used as a greeting card.

 

 

These drawings are emblematic of her work filled by contorted female figures, reclaiming their own erotic power. From the 1950s, Tanning had been working on the female body. Reclaimed and liberated from the stereotypical Surrealist representation and aesthetic shadow of her famous husband, "Tanning's imagery became more abstract. Her brushstrokes became looser and more expressive, built up in gauze-like layers, veiling bodies that seem to be ecstatic in their movements. In departing from her earlier illusionistic style, she remained faithful to the figure, which evolved from a naturalistically rendered body to more mature, sensual, and often distorted feminine form" (Dorothea Tanning Foundation)

Abandoning for a time the smell of paint ("I got fed up with the turpentine" she recounts in an interview), papier japon with its pearly sheen paired with watercolor became the artist's favorite media for her studies of the body. This frieze of erotic drawings is part of a series on the same paper and format, including Poses dans une école d'Art qui n'existe pas (1967), Maternities (1968). Her languid lines are also reminiscent of her famous fabric female sculptures with sensual forms from her installation Room 202, Hotel du Pavot created a few years later.

The singular value and strength of these bodies tortured by pleasure recall her fusional and powerful union with Max Ernst. Married in 1946 at the same time as Man Ray and Juliet Brower, they settled in the American desert then in France, where they met Ylipe (Philippe) and his wife Germaine Labarthe, for whom Tanning created this artwork. The two couples shared a similar aesthetic vision: Ylipe's drawings mixing Surrealism and dark humor have been frequently compared to Ernst's paintings. Ylipe also sent a very explicit card in 1965 to the Ernst-Tanning couple, with whom he formed an intimate circle where art and sex were inextricably linked and led to an exchange of powerful erotic artworks.