186 - Wolfgang PAALEN (Vienna 1907 – Taxco 1959)

Wolfgang PAALEN (Vienna 1907 – Taxco 1959) Untitled (Messenger) Created in 1949 Oil and smoke on canvas 61 x 46 cm A certificate of authenticity by Dr. Andreas Neufert will be provided to the buyer. Provenance: Private collection, Paris Bibliography: Andreas Neufert, Wolfgang Paalen, Im Inneren des Wals, Vienna/New York (Springer), p. 324, ill. no. 49.07 In this 1949 work, Wolfgang Paalen combines oil painting with the technique of smoke painting, which he had been developing since the 1930s. By allowing smoke to mark the surface of the canvas, he introduces an element of chance and direct imprint, breaking with traditional painting methods. Although still structured by a slightly figurative framework, the composition foreshadows artistic explorations that would come into their own in the 1950s and 1960s: gestural abstraction, an interest in the trace, materiality, and combustion. Certain postwar experimental practices follow this line of thought: Yves Klein would explore the potential of fire in his works as early as the late 1950s, and Otto Piene, co-founder of the ZERO group, would use smoke as a genuine pictorial tool. The work thus stands as a milestone between Surrealism and the postwar avant-garde, illustrating Paalen’s unique position as an artist who was both rooted in his time and ahead of some of the major turning points in 20th-century art.