A Conversation at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art with Alexander Nemerov and Megan Kincaid
To celebrate the opening of Gallery Wendi Norris' exhibition, Wolfgang Paalen and Alice Rahon: Worlds Gone and to Come, scholars Alexander Nemerov and Megan Kincaid came together on September 10, 2026, for a conversation at SFMOMA exploring Paalen and Rahon, two of Surrealism’s most influential and underrecognized artists.
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 coincided with the 75th anniversary of SFMOMA’s presentation of "Dynaton," the landmark 1951 exhibition that introduced Paalen’s movement to the public.
Marin Sarvé-Tarr, assistant curator of painting and sculpture at SFMOMA, introduced the program.
About the speakers
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.
Megan Kincaid serves on the Faculty of the Humanities & Social Sciences at The Cooper Union and is Curator of the Kenneth C. Griffin Collection. At present, she's at work on a book on ex-Surrealists in Mexico City during World War II, centering on Alice Rahon, as well as exhibitions of Kazuya Sakai and Bridget Tichenor. Previously, she taught modern art and dance history at New York University. Dr. Kincaid received her PhD from The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU (2024) and BA in Art History from Columbia University, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa (2017).
