Homage A Penrose

Dorothea Tanning executed this lithograph in honor of her friend Roland Penrose.
Sir Roland Penrose (1900-1984) was a British Surrealist artist, art historian, curator, and collector. His second wife was the American Photographer, Lee Miller.

Penrose (a friend of Max Ernst since the 1920’s in Paris) and Lee Miller visited Ernst and Tanning at Capricorn Hill in Sedona. Lee Miller made many iconic photos of the artists during that time.

Loan from a private collection

Throughout her expansive, seven-decade career, Dorothea Tanning created dreamlike worlds, embracing Surrealism and sensual transcendence. Her practice—which spanned painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, poetry, and memoir—was at first heavily representational and decidedly Surrealist: Her paintings featured sinewy figures, strong lines, and dramatic shadings. In the 1950s, Tanning began to explore more abstract modes, making use of dynamic compositions and luminous, prismatic color planes. She also produced large-scale soft sculptures and room-sized installations:

Tanning’s work has sold for seven figures on the secondary market and belongs in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Moderna Museet, the Museo Reina Sofía, the Tate, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among others. *artsy.net