Children’s Games

Tanning here paints a scene of formally dressed, doll-like girls tearing at the wallpaper of a corridor, exposing flames beyond. These flames seem to have anatomical features, and one of the girls has her hair sucked into the fire. In an interview on the work for a 1974 retrospective of her work at the Centre National D'Art Contemporain, Paris, Tanning said ‘I read somewhere that what I believed to be poetic and sublime testimonials of my conviction that life is a desperate confrontation with unknown forces are in reality cute girlish dreams, flaring with sexual symbols’. The largest size variation we are able to offer this print in is 45 x 60 cm. Artist Dorothea Tanning Artwork Children's Games Exhibition Dorothea Tanning Date of work 1942 Credit Oil paint on canvas 28 x 18 cm Private Collection © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2019