Description

Exquisite Dreams is the first full account of Dorothea Tanning’s art and life. 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 art 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.

Publisher Review

'Amy Lyford has shaped a plethora of archival information into a story of Dorothea Tanning's life and works. Exquisite Dreams is a highly readable page turner that engages fully with Tanning's canny critiques of gender and sexuality and illuminates the complexities of Tanning's life showing Tanning to be one of the most intriguing artists of the twentieth century.' - Jennifer Shaw, Sonoma State University, author of Exist Otherwise