Dorothea Tanning
in ‘IMAGINE!: 100 Years of International Surrealism’, Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium
21 February – 21 July 2024
Dorothea Tanning, Odalisque Plagued by Eyrinis, 1982. Courtesy: The Destina Foundation, New York, and Alison Jacques Gallery, London © Artists Rights Society, New York, and ADAGP, Paris
Dorothea Tanning is included in the group exhibition, ‘IMAGINE! 100 Years of International Surrealism’ at The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, an international touring exhibition conceived in close collaboration with the Centre Pompidou, Paris.
‘IMAGINE!’ focuses on the connections and similarities, but also the fracture lines between surrealism and symbolism, one of its precursors. From 1880 onwards, Brussels was an exceptional hub for the arts and the avant-garde, as demonstrated by the exhibitions of groups such as “Les XX” and “La Libre Esthétique”. Symbolism evolved rapidly in Brussels and largely anticipated the emergence of the surrealist movement. A few decades later, Brussels became a centre for Belgian surrealism. Despite the cultural rupture caused by World War I, the older symbolists and the emerging youth were never fundamentally alienated from each other.
After Brussels, the exhibition will travel to the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany; and the Fundación Mapfré, Madrid, before closing at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, US.