Overview

Both critic and artist, Wolfgang Paalen was a highly influential figure in the culture of the Modernist movements of the 20th century. His work significantly informed Abstract Expressionism, especially with his periodical ^IDYN^R, published from 1942-1944, which became a seminal work for painters of that time. This is the first book-length work to demonstrate his importance and bring together the contexts—philosophical, scientific, anthropological, political, and cultural—in which he worked. Thus it provides a study not only of Paalen himself, but of the relationships between modernist art movements of Europe and America, including Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism—and the cultural, social, and political histories in which they developed. Carefully and thoroughly detailing the events of Paalen's life and the formation of his thinking, author Amy Winter shows how his biography, art, and thought come together in the six issues of ^IDYN^R, which continued an exploration initiated by the Surrealists and other avant-gardes, and which delved into many problems which have preoccupied art in the last two decades. Utilizing material gathered for the first time, including personal interviews and archives never before consulted, Winter offers a vivid portrayal of a painter, philosopher, critic, collector, journalist, editor, historian, and ethnographer—in short, a 20th-century renaissance man.

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9780275975241

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Reviews

Between Two Worlds: Wolfgang Paalen, Artist and Theorist of the Avant-Garde is an impressive work of scholarship that will have tremendous appeal to anyone interested in 20th-century art, Surrealism in Paris and Mexico, and the development of Abstract Expressionism. Winter's study of the charismatic emigre artist, critic, and dealer spotlights his life and career and describes artistic and intellectual currents in Europe and the Americas, especially between the two world wars. Exhaustively researched, it is an immensely readable and well-illustrated book that restores Paalen as a major artist of the period and an influential scholar of modern and ethnographic art. Eloise Quinones Keber, Professor of Pre-Columbian and Latin American Art, The Graduate Center and Baruch College, City University of New York; A wonderful contribution to surrealist scholarship that clearly situates Paalen at the vanguard of surrealist thought and innovation within essential biographical, historical, and philosophical contexts. Relying on new, previously unpublished sources, Winter gives an eloquent portrayal of an artist who revised European surrealism according to a New World aesthetic vision that significantly influenced the New York School. Katharine Conley, Associate Professor of French and Italian, Dartmouth College

Author Information

AMY WINTER is Director and Curator of the Godwin-Ternbach Museum at Queens College of The City University of New York./ Her credits include many articles and papers for national and international journals, and exhibitions and catalogues for public and private museums throughout the United States, Europe, and Mexico.

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