Exquisite Dreams: The Art and Life of Dorothea Tanning by Amy Lyford

Exquisite Dreams: The Art and Life of Dorothea Tanning by Amy Lyford

Hosted by the Surrealist Study Group

Join us at the library for an evening of art, literature, and conversation as we explore the extraordinary life and work of Dorothea Tanning with author and art historian Amy Lyford.

We’ll begin with a conversation inspired by Tanning’s paintings, poems, and portals with dama and Amy Lyford. We will read from Lyford’s latest publication and biography Exquisite Dreams: The Art and Life of Dorothea Tanning. Followed by a book signing and informal gathering.

About the book:

Exquisite Dreams: The Art and Life of Dorothea Tanning is the first full account of the art and life of Dorothea Tanning (1910–2012). Rather than only focusing on her well-known surrealist paintings, this book gives equal weight to Tanning’s lesser-known but equally powerful sculptures, abstract paintings, and films. Setting Tanning’s writings, biography, and artwork into the contexts of advertising, fashion, popular culture, and art in New York and Paris, Lyford brings Tanning’s ideas and feelings to life. Using new archival sources and analyses of Tanning’s work in a variety of media, Lyford broadens our understanding of the artist. This amply illustrated book is an important contribution to the history of women artists, gender and sexuality studies, as well as the history of Surrealism. It will appeal to art historians and art lovers alike.

Bring your questions, your musings, and your affinity for the strange and beautiful in Dorothea Tanning's life. Whether you’re new to Tanning’s worlds or have long held her presence, this is an evening to honor the surreal of this life-art. As Dorothea herself once said:“Art has always been the raft onto which we climb to save our sanity.”

ABOUT YOUR HOSTS:

The Surrealist Study Group is organized and led by artist and PRS librarian dama, as an open, evolving circle of readers, artists, dreamers, and thinkers convening regularly at the Philosophical Research Society Library to explore the liberatory and transformative currents of Surrealism.

Rooted in the historic PRS archives and guided by a spirit of inquiry, the group delves into the manifestos, artworks, poetry, and personal mythologies that shaped and continue to shape the surrealist movement—from its historical origins to its resonances in contemporary thought and art.

Together, we read aloud, share visions, and discuss the revolutionary power of the unconscious, the image, and the poetic act. More than an academic pursuit, this study welcomes the irrational, the marvelous, and the intimate as legitimate ways of knowing. No prior knowledge of Surrealism is needed—only a willingness to imagine otherwise.

Author’s Bio:

Amy Lyford is Arthur G. Coons Professor in the History of Ideas, and Prof of Art History at Occidental College. She teaches courses in Modern and Contemporary Art History, the History of Photography, with a special focus on the early to mid-twentieth century. Her books include "Surrealist Masculinities," "Isamu Noguchi's Modernism," both with the University of California Press, and "Exquisite Dreams: The Art and Life of Dorothea Tanning." Her current research centers on the architectural and surrealist photography of Dora Maar, and networks of surrealist artists, filmmakers, and writers working in the US during the 1940s and 1950s.

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