Super furry
Fashioned from fake fur and peach flannel, Tanning’s 1969 “soft sculpture” resembles a nudist grappling with a Wookiee. But that initial impression belies its yin yang elegance: this is ego and id as beauty and the beast. Like her paintings of giant lapdogs (a recurring motif) and naked young women, its teddy-bear hide suggests a domestic world where desire finds odd outlets and fetishes take hold.
The grande dame
Tanning, who died aged 101 in 2012, has been dubbed the last of the surrealists. She brought a feminine edge to the dream worlds pioneered by her New York circle, which included André Breton, Salvador Dalí and her husband Max Ernst.
Let’s dance
There’s a balletic swirl to Etreinte, a form Tanning was well versed in, having created costume sketches for the choreographer George Balanchine.
Softly, softly
It was the experimental daring of a Stockhausen concert that inspired Tanning, whose paintings often featured surreal attire, to turn to actual cloth. Fabric was the opposite of the traditional boys’ club materials of hard bronze and stone. Typically worn next to the body, its sensuous quality was perfect for her explorations of sex and the psyche.
Part of Making & Unmaking, Curated By Duro Olowu, Camden Arts Centre, NW3, to 18 Sep
