Wolfgang Paalen worked at a period when the terms of art itself were being renegotiated.
The record lists Wolfgang Paalen as Austrian artist (1905-1959).
Wolfgang Paalen was born at Vienna in 1905. His recorded nationality is Mexico.
Around the turn of the twentieth century the movements arrived in quick succession, each defining itself against the last.
He worked as painter, sculptor and philosopher.
His recorded movement is surrealism.
An artist's reputation moves with taste, but the work stays exactly where it was left.
That the work was made in Mexico shaped it: artistic traditions, academies and the galleries that decide what is seen have never been evenly distributed.
Wolfgang Paalen died in 1959, aged 54. The work remains, hanging in collections that outlived both the artist and the market that first priced it.
Achievements
- Movement: surrealism
