Wolfgang Paalen

Wolfgang Paalen
Paalen, c. 1940
Born(1905-07-22)July 22, 1905
Vienna, Austria
DiedSeptember 24, 1959(1959-09-24) (aged 54)
Taxco, Mexico
NationalityAustrian–Mexican
EducationPhilosophy, art
Known forPainting, sculpture, art theory
MovementSurrealism, Modernism
Spouse(s)1. 1934: Alice Phillipot, later Rahon
2. 1947: Luchita Hurtado
3. 1957: Isabel Marín

Wolfgang Robert Paalen (July 22, 1905 in Vienna, Austria – September 24, 1959 in Taxco, Mexico) was an Austrian-Mexican painter, sculptor, and art philosopher. A member of the Abstraction-Création group from 1934 to 1935, he joined the influential Surrealist movement in 1935 and was one of its prominent exponents until 1942. Whilst in exile in Mexico, he founded his own counter-surrealist art-magazine DYN, in which he summarized his critical attitude towards radical subjectivism and Freudo-Marxism in Surrealism with his philosophy of contingency. He rejoined the group between 1951 and 1954, during his sojourn in Paris.