DeWitt Cheng reviews a recent exhibition of works by Dorothea Tanning at Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco.

Cheng writes that "Tanning created a forceful combination of erotic danger and allure…  A push-pull between attraction and repulsion powers the abstract images of tangled, submerged female figures, flying or falling that evolved in her 'prism' or 'insomnia' paintings from the mid-1950s… In Faith, Surrounded by Hope, Charity, and Other Monsters (1976), there’s an unmistakable similarity to [Max] Ernst’s grattage paintings of the same period, but Tanning’s vision is darker—more romantic and dramatic."