In an iconographic analysis of a Tanning painting, the viewer is easily lost in the surrealism; I am no exception. The surrealism of her pieces has left me with more questions than answers, but some conclusions can be drawn through a formal analysis, and educated guesses. When I tried to understand Tanning's intent from my normal point of view, I only noticed how it was unlike reality, a dream. I hardly can understand my own dreams, much less someone else's , so I changed my point of view. I attempted to enter Tanning's realm of expression. Inside I found the depth of Tanning's perception, a work of detailed symbols and emotion.

The first thing I noticed in Guardian Angels was the overall feeling I got from the paintin

The final component in my analysis of this piece is the story it tells. The subtle display of the sequence of the kidnapping, didn't come to my attention until I had already started to write this paper. This goes to show how complex and impressive this painting is; now one of my favorites from this century. The sequence begins with the furthest bed in the distance, empty. As your eyes follow the beds, a sense of time becomes apparent, one bed after the other. Finally, you reach the present moment, where the angels are in action and it becomes clear what happened to the past beds. Now the viewer can even see into the future from right to left. The final frame, a display of a girl in the color and texture of the angels, being carried away. I noticed that the sequence includes a morphing of the forms, from girls sleeping, into what looks like the guardian angels; this could imply several things. For instance, could it mean that their innocence has been taken,? They are no longer sleeping girls, but now like the guardian angels? This should be left up to the individual viewer.

After my mind processed the general overtone, my eyes traveled around the painting, first going to the redness in the lower center. The red-orange clothing on the form in the bed, is juxtaposing within the blue-greenness of the rest of the painting, making it stand out quite obviously. We can be sure that Tanning intended this for focusing atten

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