Possible men

Possible men
(Hommes possibles)
 (1934)

Gallery location
Late 19th & early 20th Century Paintings & Decorative Arts Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
 

About this work

Wolfgang Paalen travelled widely throughout Europe from 1920 onwards, painting in France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Greece and Czechoslovakia before settling in Paris in 1928. There he joined the avant-garde Abstraction-Création movement that included Jean Arp, Albert Gleizes, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson. Paalen also exhibited with the Surrealists from 1932 to 1939, becoming a leading figure in that movement. In this painting from his Surrealist phase, Paalen adopted a simplified graphism in which the human being is reduced to interlocking triangular forms painted in a limited palette of strong colours with little modulation or shading.

Artwork Details

Medium
tempera and oil on canvas
Measurements
156.0 × 91.4 cm
Place/s of Execution
Paris, France
Inscription
inscribed in black paint l.c.r.: WP.
Accession Number
2017.10
Department
International Painting
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
The Eugénie Crawford Bequest, 2017
© Succession Wolfgang Paalen et Eva Sulzer
Reproduction requests
Gallery location
Late 19th & early 20th Century Paintings & Decorative Arts Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
Subjects (general)
Abstract Art
Subjects (specific)
anthropomorphic figure-derived form attributes flat (form attributes) heads (representations) shape (form attribute) simplicity (artistic concept)
Movements
Surrealism

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