Untitled (Fumage)

<p>Wolfgang Paalen’s invention of <em>fumage</em>—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.”</p> <p>This is one of thirty-five works that comprise the Winterbotham Collection. <a href="https://www.artic.edu/the-winterbotham-collection">Click here to learn more about the collection.</a></p>