Birthday

by Dorothea Tanning

The author, an artist herself, recounts her life with her husband, Max Ernst, the surrealist painter

Genres: Art, Memoir, Nonfiction

185 pages, Hardcover

First published December 12, 1986

About the author

Dorothea Tanning was an American painter, printmaker, sculptor and writer. She has also designed sets and costumes for ballet and theatre.

Reviews

[Sketchbook · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You can laugh at the past," says Dorothea Tanning,
"you cannot laugh at the future." Her memoir (no
'ghost' for Tanning) of life with Max Ernst in postwar
Paris and America (she was his 4th wife) is an original
"rumination, souvenir" of a surrealist vision.

This adventurous artist from Galesburg, Ill, fragments
Time & Memory as she recalls Andre Breton, Roland
Penrose, Man Ray. Essentially hers is a personal
story and, as one critic said, "a poetic evocation in
which dream and reality can mingle."

The Left Bank was "a perpetual carnival where disguise
and discretion are one and the same." It contrasts with
a lengthy retreat in Sedona, Arizona, where "an electrical
storm could hang a ball of white fire in the doorway."
Modest luxuries - telling your best ideas to a dog or
crying for fun, she adds - make the small life big.
-------
Tanning later put this material into a 2d memoir,
"Between Lives."

[Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd wanted to read this one since the late 80's, but never got around to it. Now it's long out of print and the publisher doesn't even exist anymore. Well, I finally read it and I hated it. I really hated it. How can a book about being married to Max Ernst suck so badly? Tanning's prose is excruciating. But I've read nothing but positive things about it, so it must be me.

[Jade Aslain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dorothea Tanning sure can write

[Annie Ponce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I initially picked up this book two years ago for my thesis that I wrote on Dorothea Tanning’s portrait “Birthday,” but I had only used portions of the book. I finally decided to pick it up and read it cover to cover.

Allow me to begin by saying this is a poetically LONG WINDED book. Its structure is meandering, very much stream of consciousness with attempted structure which, to be fair, I do not mind (she is a painter after all).

The story itself isn’t even so much about Tanning as it is about her attempt to make Max Ernst understood, though through her own myopic lens. A lot of the story hinges on her perceived lackluster status in his presence which makes me kind of sad as a huge fan of her art. Possibly a case of imposter syndrome?

However, I will say this… this book made me kind of like Max Ernst where I previously did not. I hold more of an appreciation for his art, and I fear he is much easier to like through the eyes of someone who loved him.

Also, holy poetry! I almost never feel the need to have a pen on hand when reading biographies, but Tanning writes in such a profoundly poetic way, she had me underlining sentences and passages while muttering “who the fuck even THINKS like that?!”

[Maeve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dorothea Tanning was a native of Galesburg, Illinois. She became a visual artist and also a pretty amazing writer. Married to Max Ernst, Tanning had an eclectic group of artist friends. I watched the movie Lee about one of those artists, Lee Miller, at the same time. What an interesting period in history and in art.