The Doors

Door 84 – Dorothea Tanning (1984)

“This is the strangest life I have ever known.”
― Jim Morrison, The Doors

This Spring I went home to visit my family and managed to squeeze in a couple of days arting in London and St. Ives. There was crazy wind and rain on the South West Coast but I got  to spend a few hours at the Anna Bohiguian exhibition at the Tate St. Ives. I wish I could have stayed longer there was so much to take in. It was inspiring to see her sketches and characters freed from the page to take up various positions around the gallery.

In London I spent a day at the Tate Modern, taking in Pierre Bonnard, Dorothea Tanning and Jenny Holzer. I loved Bonnard’s use of colour and space. As a viewer I felt like I was in the room with the subjects of the painting. Windows and doors were almost life size and I had the feeling that I was being invited to step through into the painting. Windows and doors marked the separation between an interior and exterior world. The tranquil and predictable interior home life and the external wildness of the garden.

The theme of doors continued in the Dorothea Tanning Exhibition. People pulling against a physical door separating two canvases; Subjects hiding behind doors and doors leading to rooms in an unending pattern. Tannings doors take us to the unknown rooms of the subconscious and there is a strong sense of an unknown otherness in all of her work. 

On Day two I got myself over to Brick Lane for The Other Art Fair I got to see the art work in person of some artists that I follow on Instagram which was awesome. I also discovered a few new artists whose work I really enjoyed, you can check them out on instagram @spiralwonders @georginawaltonartist and @altaberri