Art of the 20th Century

 

Art Styles in 20th century Art Map



 

Wolfgang Paalen





 

Wolfgang Paalen
 

(b Vienna, 1905 or 1907; d Mexico City, 1959).
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–Création in 1934 and was involved with the Surindépendants 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, 1937). He also produced sculptures made from objets trouvés, such as an encrusted umbrella entitled Articulated Cloud (1938; Stockholm, Mod. Mus.).

Les cosmogones (Stage)