Dorothea Tanning Week Photo Gallery

Events celebrating "Dorothea Tanning: From Galesburg Roots to Worldwide Fame" were held in Galesburg from May 2 through May 20.

Knox College professor Robin Metz reads a proclamation from Galesburg mayor Sal Garza honoring Dorothea Tanning and celebrating the placement of a marker at Tanning's childhood home, 420 Hawkinson Ave., in Galesburg on May 14. The proclamation cited Tanning's "extraordinary lifetime achievements," including her "successful career as a designer, illustrator, and artist"; her "reputation as one of the twentieth century's most innovative and provocative painters, printmakers, sculptors, and designers for theatre and ballet"; and her most recent work as an author of poetry, fiction, and memoir.

Galesburg artist Paulette Thenhaus reads her essay in honor of Dorothea Tanning outside the house where Tanning grew up. Events for "Dorothea Tanning: From Galesburg Roots to Worldwide Fame" were coordinated by Thenhaus, Tom Foley and Jay Bullis of Galesburg; and Knox College faculty members Robin Metz and Christie Cirone.

Visitors view an exhibit of works by Dorothea Tanning at Knox College on May 14 -- one of the events during Dorothea Tanning Week in Galesburg. The display included ten paintings from Tanning's extensive work in surrealism, along with never-before-exhibited illustrations that she did for campus publications while a student at Knox in the 1930s.

Michael Taylor of the Philadelphia Museum of Art gives a talk, "Dorothea: 'Birthday' and Beyond," in Kresge Hall on May 14. Taylor's museum owns "Birthday," one of Tanning's most famous paintings, and he co-curated a 2001 exhibit of her work. Taylor is the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and an eminent scholar of surrealism.

Alice Quinn, executive director of the Poetry Society of America, and two members of the Tanning family -- Mimi Johnson, Tanning's niece, and John Nyman, Tanning's nephew -- give a presentation about Tanning's writing, May 14 in Kresge Hall. Johnson's nonprofit organization, Performing Artservices, Inc., promotes artists in contemporary music, theater and dance. Johnson is also the founder of the Lovely Music, Ltd., a record label dedicated to the dissemination of new American music. Nyman is a professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Division of Health Policy and Management and a private collector of American and European art from the modern and surrealist era. Poetry editor at The New Yorker from 1987-2007, Quinn has a long acquaintance with Tanning and served as editor for the many Tanning poems that appeared in The New Yorker.

Poet Mary Jo Bang reads from her own work, May 13 in Knox College's Seymour Library, as part of the Dorothea Tanning Symposium on May 13-14. Bang's poetry collection, The Eye Like a Strange Balloon, explores the place of modern art in society, including the work of Tanning and her husband Max Ernst, two leading practitioners of the surrealistic style.