Dorothea Tanning (1910-2012)

The present work is a sketch for a painting of the same title. The painting belongs to a series of 12 paintings of imaginary flowers, captured in a book, Another Language of Flowers (New York: George Braziller 1998), with poems written by poet friends. The poem for this work is by Adrienne Rich:

"Pictor mysteriosa (Burnt Umbrage)"

Pistil, stamen and bract
but never abstract:
the flower becomes the eye
we see her by.