Wolfgang Paalen, “Pays medusé”, 1938 ©Succession Wolfgang Paalen
Wolfgang Paalen – Austrian Surrealist in Paris, Mexico The Lower Belvedere presents an exhibition on the work of the artist and thinker Wolfgang Paalen, the only Austrian in the circle of Parisian Surrealists, an important trailblazer of art during the mid-twentieth century, and one who significantly influenced the American avant-garde of the 1940s. 4 October 2019 to 19 January 2020.]]>
Source: Lower Belvedere
Born in Vienna in 1905, Wolfgang Paalen was drawn to Paris in 1929, where he joined the Surrealists. In addition to provocative assemblage works, his foremost contribution to the Surrealist movement was his series known as Fumage. By means of candle smoke, Paalen would paint hallucinatory motifs on blank canvases, wood, or paper. He would either leave them as they were or continue to complete them by responding to the smoke forms with oil paint. Developing his technique in 1936, the Viennese artist quickly rose to international fame.
Together with Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, and Salvador Dalí, Paalen designed the groundbreaking 1938 Surrealism exhibition at the Beaux-Arts gallery in Paris. In 1939 at Frida Kahlo’s invitation he exiled himself to Mexico. From 1942 to 1944 he published the influential art journal DYN. Inspired by quantum physics and the art of totem poles from North America’s northwest coast, he further developed the unique look of fumage into a completely new spatial concept of painting, known as Spaciales. The exhibition at the Belvedere is primarily dedicated to these two of Paalen’s creative periods. It presents a series of never-before-seen Fumage and Spaciales images supplemented by numerous biographical objects such as photos and letters and a comprehensive archive of the DYN magazine. Paalen’s research and collection over many years of indigenous art in British Columbia and Mexico, as well as his literary works that include poetry, short stories, plays, and art theory texts, appear in the exhibition as further elements of his complex work. With his images and texts Paalen was both a support and inspiration for the young exponents of American Abstract Expressionist painting, such as Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollok, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko.
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