Forbidden Land

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: private collection (Berlin, Germany).

This is one of the artist’s first works, in which he used the well-known technique of fumigation in combination with oil painting. The picture was painted during the period of deep psychological crisis that Paalen had because of his wife’s affair with Pablo Picasso. The artist placed a totemic female figure on the highest part of the mountain, which symbolizes power and inconstancy, and the lower part of the canvas is a dark rocky abyss of the subconscious, leading to the abyss of death. The crystalline forms of this mountain, made extremely skillfully with the help of soot from a burning candle, immediately attracted the attention of the art community and contributed to the advancement of Paalen’s creative career.