How exhibitions like MoMA's 1936 Surrealism show transformed artists' lives

Alyce Mahon's new book "Dorothea Tanning: A Surrealist World" examines how the 1936 exhibition "Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism" at MoMA profoundly impacted the 26-year-old Tanning. Curated by Alfred Barr, the show featured 700 objects from 15th-century art to Disney cels. Tanning described it in her memoir "Birthday" (1986) as "rocking me on my run-over heels" and opening "the limitless expanse of POSSIBILITY." Mahon notes the gendered narrative of a young waitress encountering women artists for the first time. Tanning became so obsessed she sailed to Paris in July 1939 to meet Surrealist leaders, a quest thwarted by war. Lorna Simpson, whose current show at Punta della Dogana coincides with the Venice Biennale, recalls a revelation at the 1987 Zurbarán exhibition at the Met, which influenced her lifesize photographic figures. Hurvin Anderson, now with a mid-career survey at Tate Britain, cites two 1990s exhibitions: Rasheed Araeen's "The Other Story" (1989, Hayward Gallery) addressing cultural identity, and Richard Diebenkorn at Whitechapel Gallery (1991), which disregarded figuration/abstraction polarization. The article argues museums must still mount bold, less commercially obvious shows like these.