Wolfgang Paalen
1905 - 1959
Messagers. 1949.
Oil on canvas.
Monogrammed, dated, and titled on the reverse of the canvas. 30.5 x 25.5 cm (12 x 10 in).
Stamped on the reverse of the canvas with the Wolfgang Paalen Archive seal and the handwritten number “49.10” [AR].

• Visionary visual language of the 1940s: a wonderfully dense, cosmic-abstract composition by the Austrian artist Wolfgang Paalen.
• After emigrating to Mexico in 1939, he became an important representative of the exile avant-garde and exerted a major influence on Abstract Expressionism in the United States.
• Exhibited in two major retrospectives of the artist in Vienna in 1993 and in Mexico City in 1994.

PROVENANCE: Helene Meier-Graefe, Badenweiler (since 1954, as a gift from the artist).
Yvonne von König, Munich (inherited from the above)
Elisabeth Franz, Kassel.
Private collection, East Germany.

EXHIBITION: Wolfgang Paalen. Zwischen Surrealismus und Abstraktion, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Sept. 24–Nov. 7, 1993, p. 240 (with color ill.).
Wolfgang Paalen. Retrospectiva, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Alvar y Carmen T. de Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, July–Sept. 1994, p. 216 (with color ill.).

LITERATURE: Andreas Neufert, Wolfgang Paalen. Im Inneren des Wals, Monograph – Writings – Catalogue Raisonné, Vienna/New York 1999, CR no. 49/10 (with illustration on p. 325, and color illustration on p. 175).
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Lempertz, Cologne, Auction 658, Nov. 22, 1990, lot 1222.

In good condition. Slight scuffing in the corners of the image and in places along the edges. A white paint spot in the upper left corner of the image, likely caused during the studio process. This condition report was prepared to the best of our knowledge and belief, in daylight and using a UV light source.
For information concerning the condition, please view the high resolution image / backside image.