Pictured is a painting titled The Immortal Remains by Wolfgang Paalen on display in the Dallas Museum of Art in Dallas, Texas. It was created in 1937 using the new painting technique pioneered by Paalen in 1936, known as fumage, or smoke. The artist placed a lit candle or lamp beside a blank canvas, allowing the smoke to billow against its surface. The buildup of soot generated spontaneous shapes that Paalen then reinforced with paint to create an almost hallucinatory image. Paalen was born in Vienna, Austria in 1905 and died in Mexico City, Mexico in 1959.
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