Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Kang, Soo Y

Titel

Tanning's pictograph: repossessing woman's fantasy

Ist Teil von

• Aurora (Woodcliff Lake, N.J.), 2002-01, Vol.3, p.89-104

Erscheinungsjahr

2002

Link zum Volltext

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Considers recent critical studies about women Surrealists, with reference to the work of the artist Dorothea Tanning. The author affirms the gendered dimension of Tanning's work by using psychoanalytical and feminist concepts, considers the extent to which gender can be used to determine Surrealist art with reference to the writings of Robert Belton, and places the artist within the context of a Surrealist tendency to eroticize the femme-enfant. She claims that Tanning's use of young girls is unique within this tradition, referring to several paintings including Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (1946; illus.), discusses the relevance of Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytical thought and French feminists including Luce Irigaray, and underlines the pertinence of a non-phallic jouissance in Tanning's work. She concludes by suggesting that while Tanning herself 'never intended to make a feminist statement', one can be revealed by means of a feminist critique of Lacanian perspectives.