Wolfgang Paalen - Theory

Theory

In the spring of 1942 the New York art world witnesses the result of Paalen's intense work in the first years of exile in Mexico – the art journal DYN (derived from the Greek tò dynaton – "that which is possible"). In its first issue he publicly announces to his friend Breton his Farewell to Surrealism. In the second issue he scandalised his former advocate again by publishing a survey on Dialectical Materialism and an article with the provocative title The dialectical Gospel. In DYN Paalen theoretically hedged his concept of possibility on various levels, with quantum theory, with an own concept of totemism, gestalt theory, with his criticisms of dialectical materialism and western dualistic concepts, with his analysis of cave painting etc.. Via his journal published in Mexico between 1942 and 1944 with a total of 5 issues he temporarily advanced to be one of the most influential art theorist during the war. In seven large essays and countless smaller articles and reviews he discussed in detail all current hot topics that also concerned the young artists in New York, and in response received their full attention. With the exception of Totem Art, all essays are republished under the title Form and Sense by Robert Motherwell in New York as the first issue of the series of writings titled Problems of Contemporary Art in which also the first papers of the later Abstract Expressionists, like Possibilities, were published. Paalen's short sojourns in New York and the two solo exhibitions made him known as a painter in artist's circles, however his predominant absence from the New York art scene and the wide reception of Dyn and Form and Sense fostered his image as a kind of intellectual secret agent primarily exerting indirect influence on the events through his intensely discussed ideas.