Untitled (Fumage)

Wolfgang Paalen’s invention of fumage—literally painting with smoke—established his position as a preeminent painter within the Surrealist movement. To execute this technique, which Paalen described as “dictation by candle,” he would hold a candle flame up to a treated canvas while the paint was still wet, marking the surface with soot. In this large-scale work, smoke and oil paint blend seamlessly, creating biomorphic forms that seem to emerge from the plumes. Believing art could express a new order of things, Paalen once stated that modern art should leave us filled with hope, elaborating that the “possible does not have to be justified by the known.”

This is one of thirty-five works that comprise the Winterbotham Collection. Click here to learn more about the collection.