Wolfgang Paalen

Born Vienna. Died Mexico City.

Austrian painter and writer, active in Mexico. Self-taught, he travelled widely through Europe from 1920, painting in France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Greece and Czechoslovakia. He became a member of Abstraction / Creation in 1934 and was involved with the Surindependants in Paris from 1932 to 1935, but from 1935 he was associated primarily with SURREALISM. He is generally credited with inventing the Surrealist technique of fumage, by which he drew on the canvas with the random and evanescent patterns of smoke from candles, as in Fumage (oil and smoke on canvas, 910 * 600 mm, 1937; Tepoztlan, Morelos, Isabel Marin de Paalen priv. col.; see Morales, pl. I, opp. p. 14). He also produced sculptures made from objets trouves, such as an encrusted umbrella entitled Articulated Cloud (1938; Stockholm, Mod. Mus.).

Major Works

Articulated Cloud (1938)