Forbidden Land 1937

Wolfgang Paalen conjured this uncanny oil on canvas of a “Forbidden Land” sometime in the 20th century. Paalen's playful manipulation of tone and texture turns the landscape into a realm of shifting perception. Look at how the paint is built up, thick in some areas, thin in others, like the heavy, textured cliffs, and smooth, graded sky. The application feels intuitive, as if the paint was directed by the artist's hand. The cliff face is made up of individual strokes of contrasting tones, applied in a kind of all-over pattern, reminiscent of the New York School. The drips of paint trailing from the floating spheres have a similar effect. There's an openness here that acknowledges artmaking as a process. Artists like Remedios Varo, Dorothea Tanning or Leonora Carrington come to mind. But Paalen's piece feels like it leans further into abstraction. It's more about the feeling than the thing itself. And that's what makes art so exciting. It's always opening up new ways of seeing.