Unsung Surrealists: Wolfgang Paalen and Alice Rahon: A Conversation with Alexander Nemerov and Megan Kincaid

Join scholars Alexander Nemerov and Megan Kincaid for a conversation exploring two of Surrealism’s most influential and underrecognized artists, Wolfgang Paalen and Alice Rahon, who both have historical ties to SFMOMA.

 

Paalen and Rahon, husband and wife from 1934 to 1947, forged artistic paths that were at once deeply rooted in Surrealist thought and defiantly their own. Rahon, a celebrated poet turned painter, transformed language into luminous, textured canvases charged with poetic incantation — and received her first solo exhibition at SFMOMA in 1945. Paalen, dubbed the “philosopher of the possible,” pushed Surrealism toward new theoretical terrain, eventually founding the Dynaton movement, which fused cosmic, scientific, and transcendental ideas with modern art. This event coincides with the 75th anniversary of SFMOMA’s presentation of Dynaton, the landmark 1951 exhibition that introduced Paalen’s movement to the public.

 

In this conversation, art historians Nemerov and Kincaid will trace Paalen and Rahon’s intertwined journey from the Surrealist circles of Europe to their transformative encounters with the landscapes and visual cultures of British Columbia, Alaska, and Mexico, as well as their influence on the Bay Area and lasting imprint on 20th-century art. Marin Sarvé-Tarr, assistant curator of painting and sculpture at SFMOMA, will introduce the program.

 

This program is co-presented by Gallery Wendi Norris.

Alexander Nemerov is the author of many books on American art and culture, including Fierce Poise: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s America and The Forest: A Fable of America in the 1830s. He is the Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities at Stanford University.