Dorothea Tanning: A Dialogue Between Visual Art and Performance

Dorothea Tanning: A Dialogue Between Visual Art and Performance
A Panel Discussion
Thursday June 10, 6:30 PM

Drawing Room
35 Wooster Street (between Grand and Broome)
New York
212.219.2166
info [​at​] drawingcenter.org

www.drawingcenter.org

In conjunction with the exhibition Dorothea Tanning: Early Designs for the Stage, The Drawing Center presents a panel discussion focusing on the relationship between the visual arts and performance in the twentieth century. The discussion will focus in particular on Dorothea Tanning’s collaboration with George Balanchine throughout the 1940s and 50s, which challenged both artists to expand their ideas about their own work, and the viewer’s perception of the dynamic intersections of dance, performance, design, and visual art. Panelists will include Ann Temkin, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art; Robert Greskovic, freelance writer and dance critic for The Wall Street Journal; and Anna Finke, Wardrobe Supervisor for Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Moderated by Joanna Kleinberg and Rachel Liebowitz, the co-curators of Dorothea Tanning: Early Designs for the Stage.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Dorothea Tanning: Early Designs for the Stage, on view in the Drawing Room through July 23, 2010, presents approximately twenty hand-drawn ballet costume designs by Dorothea Tanning (b.1910) created in collaboration with the early modernist choreographer, George Balanchine. Dating from 1945–1953, the designs are shown together for the first time, and are accompanied by archival photographs and ephemera related to the staged productions. This series explores the intersections of dance, performance, visual art, and costume, while drawing important parallels to Tanning’s early discoveries in both painting and sculpture. Taking the form of traditional fashion plates, the blithely rendered drawings are suggestive of bodies in motion and portrayals of outlandish characters through the quirky detailing and sensual drapery of the costumes. Co-curated by Assistant Curators Joanna Kleinberg and Rachel Liebowitz.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Dorothea Tanning was born in 1910 in Galesburg, Illinois. After briefly attending the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1930s, Tanning left to pursue art on her own, inspired by the arrival of Surrealism in America. Tanning had her first solo exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York in 1944. Throughout her career, she has resided in New York, Sedona, Loire Valley, Provence, and Paris and has been the subject of numerous exhibitions, including retrospectives at Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Paris (1974); Malmö Konsthall, Sweden (1993); and The Philadelphia Museum of Art (2000-2001). Tanning currently lives and works in New York City.

PUBLICATION
To accompany Dorothea Tanning: Early Designs for the Stage, The Drawing Center has produced a 72-page publication with an introduction by the exhibition’s curators, Joanna Kleinberg and Rachel Liebowitz, and an essay by Robert Greskovic, freelance writer and dance critic for The Wall Street Journal. The publication is available now.

HOURS & ACCESSIBILITY
Gallery hours are Wednesday, 12pm–6pm, Thursday, 12pm–8pm, and Friday–Sunday, 12pm–6pm (closed Mondays and Tuesdays). The Drawing Center is wheelchair accessible.

CREDITS
Dorothea Tanning: Early Designs for the Stage is made possible in part by members of the Drawing Room, a patron circle founded to support innovative exhibitions presented in The Drawing Center’s project gallery: Devon Dikeou and Fernando Troya, Judith Levinson Oppenheimer, Elizabeth R. Miller and James G. Dinan, The Speyer Family Foundation, Inc., Louisa Stude Sarofim, Deborah F. Stiles, and Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee.

The Drawing Center
35 Wooster Street (between Grand and Broome)
212.219.2166
info@drawingcenter.org
www.drawingcenter.org

Hours: Wednesday 12–6pm | Thursday 12–8pm | Friday–Sunday 12–6pm | Closed Monday & Tuesday