Dorothea Tanning

Great Art Explained • Season 4 • Episode 8

About this episode

Dorothea Tanning painted the dark side of Surrealism. Her work sprang from the fantastic and the supernatural happenings we find in Gothic and Romantic literature, as well as the dream narrative of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Drawn to fairy tales and gothic literature as a child, in Tanning’s paintings, young girls grapple with otherworldly forces in dark, frightening places, that blend elements of the everyday and the grotesque.