Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at MoMA in New York in 1936 presented about 700 objects ranging from 15th-century art and folk art to acetate cels for Disney’s The Three Little Wolves. Dorothea Tanning, newly living in Manhattan at age 26, experienced the exhibition as an explosive, limitless expansion of possibility. She later described being “rocking” on her heels and seeing “the limitless expanse of POSSIBILITY.” The impact was shaped by a gendered narrative, including the chance to see women artists in 1936. Her obsession with Surrealism grew, and in July 1939 she traveled to Paris to meet its key figures. After war pressures, émigré Surrealists came to New York, producing spectacular results.
"Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, one of the legendary exhibitions put together by Alfred Barr, MoMA's first director. It featured around 700 objects including everything from 15th-century art to folk art and the acetate "cels" for Disney's The Three Little Wolves cartoon. Marvellous installation shots show the walls tightly packed with these diverse flights of the imagination."
"Tanning writes in her memoir, Birthday (1986), about its explosive impact, "rocking me on my run-over heels ... Here is the limitless expanse of POSSIBILITY." Mahon reflects on the "gendered image of this narrative" conjured by Tanning. "I picture somebody who's in her 20s, in her heels. I kept thinking about this: someone who was working as a waitress and who is blown out of it.""
"Mahon points out that the possibility may have seemed so great not just because she saw Surrealist art but "because, in 1936, she got to see women artists". Surrealist obsession From that moment, Tanning became so obsessed with Surrealism that in July 1939 she boarded a boat to Paris to attempt to meet its linchpins, a forlorn quest with Europe on the brink of war."
"Eventually, émigré Surrealists came to her New York, with spectacular results, as Mahon's book details. Although few artists would describe the cause and effect of such an experience as Tanning does, I am regularly reminded in my conversations with artists about exhibitions' capacity for revelation at similarly crucial moments."
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