Nuage articulé
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''Nuage articulé'' ''(Articulated cloud)'' is a surrealist object in the form of an assemblage by Wolfgang Paalen produced in 1937. The object consists of an umbrella covered with natural sponges and was one of the most significant objects at the
Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme The Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme was an exhibition by surrealist artists that took place from January 17 to February 24, 1938, in the generously equipped Galérie Beaux-Arts, run by Georges Wildenstein, at 140, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Hon ...
, which was held in Paris at the Wildenstein Gallery in 1938. It was also exhibited in numerous later exhibitions, such as Amsterdam (1938), Cambridge (1938) and Mexico City (1940). Many photographers have captured the item in its context, Man Ray, Kurt Husnik,
Josef Breitenbach Josef Breitenbach (April 3, 1896 in Munich, Germany – October 7, 1984 in New York City) was a photographer whose manipulated images and stark photographs were part of the Surrealistic movement. Early life Josef Breitenbach was born into ...
and
Denise Bellon Denise Bellon (20 September 1902 – 31 October 1999) was a French photographer associated with the Surrealism, Surrealist movement. Life She was born Denise Hulmann in Paris and studied psychology at the University of Paris, Sorbonne. She firs ...
.


Description

The object consists of a standard black umbrella with eight sections covered with flat-cut, dry natural sponges which are glued onto the fabric surfaces, the clamp and handle of the umbrella. The dimensions are 66 x 94 cm.


History

The original definition of the surrealist object art comes from the French poet
Comte de Lautréamont Comte de Lautréamont () was the ''nom de plume'' of Isidore Lucien Ducasse (4 April 1846 – 24 November 1870), a French poet born in Uruguay. His only works, ''Les Chants de Maldoror'' and ''Poésies'', had a major influence on modern arts ...
. In his poem ''
Les Chants de Maldoror ''Les Chants de Maldoror'' (''The Songs of Maldoror'') is a French poetic novel, or a long prose poem. It was written and published between 1868 and 1869 by the Comte de Lautréamont, the ''nom de plume'' of the Uruguayan-born French writer Isid ...
'' he describes the beauty of the young man Mervyn using antipodal metaphors: "He is as beautiful (..) as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissecting table". In 1937 the French editor Gallimard prepared the publication of the collected works of Lautréamont in an illustrated luxury edition, and
André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...
invited besides other artists also Paalen to contribute with an illustration Breton selected (from two proposals) the drawing ''Vieil océan'' (old Ocean), which was published in the Gallimard edition next to the appropriate text. The umbrella was always a strong metaphor in the imagery of surrealism: After a rainy day in the year 1930, he ran as congenial symbol of masculine-surrealist fury for many years – in front of a cinema
André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...
had torn an umbrella from the hand of a smaller passer-by, because he had nearly hit the great Breton in his eyes. The poet broke the umbrella over his knee, which the friends Desnos, Prévert, Tanguy, Péret and Duhamel imitated, to do the same with other passers-by. The subsequent turmoil created the typical group euphoria which generated the emotional satisfaction that Breton was a matter of the heart. In the autumn of 1937, Breton began "during dinner-meetings with a limited number of participants after or before the usual meetings" to exchange opinions and suggestions on the proposed
Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme The Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme was an exhibition by surrealist artists that took place from January 17 to February 24, 1938, in the generously equipped Galérie Beaux-Arts, run by Georges Wildenstein, at 140, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Hon ...
, as well as to prepare the catalogue. Although Paalen was helped by his sister-in-law Geo Dupin at work, ''Nuage articulé'' was not ready prior to printing of the catalogue ''Dictionnaire abrégé you surréalisme''; Breton, who particularly liked the object, published a project-drawing of Paalen. Whether Paalen brought the half-finished screen to a discrete private meeting in a smaller circle or just told the friends of it we do not know. Even the mere possibility, Paalen would eroticize the reality of the umbrella dialectically, will have certainly caused a stir, and as it was abundantly clear that a male-female union would be carried out here, all eyes were on reception. The umbrella as such embodied apart from its obvious phallic meaning, a masculine mean against the perils of nature and existence and was suddenly on everyone's lips. Paalen's proposal of a physical feminization was initially almost overlooked – the sponge cover feeds in moisture, has cleaned and touched naked woman's skin and still remained nature, and the opening of the sponge screen was suddenly the calyx as fertilizing stamen. The screen, however, was felt in the surrealist context primarily as a symbolic threat against bad weather. Marcel Duchamp's friend Henri-Pierre Roché reported that Duchamp was once asked by Breton, "to create a new ceiling for the large main room of the exhibition", and had the spontaneous idea, "to cover it with hundreds of open umbrellas with their tops down". It became only clear at the last moment, that it would be impossible to find that many umbrellas in the short term. Duchamp borrowed an open coal stove and a whole truckload of used coal-sacks from a coal merchant from La Villette, which he filled with newspaper and hung over the coal stove instead of the umbrellas.


Reception

The erotic connotations of ''Nuage articulé'', with its umbrella covered with natural sponges, embodied a dynamic sense of contradiction: bloom with stalk; sponge as symbol of nature, as a feminine utensil, which touched and cleaned naked female skin; umbrella as a masculine symbol of order and protection from natural forces. It thus became widely recognized among the Surrealists and their growing public. Geo Dupin, Paalen's sister-in-law, remembered that
Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Alfred Hamilton Barr Jr. (January 28, 1902 – August 15, 1981) was an American art historian and the first director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. From that position, he was one of the most influential forces in the development of ...
had been extremely taken with Paalen's object and had chosen not to buy it, for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, only because it was too fragile and difficult to transport. ''Nuage articulé'' was published later in a more political context in the Surrealist magazine ''London Bulletin'', together with a text by
André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...
translated by
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...
with acomment that the sponge-umbrella would bring to mind another, sadly prominent, umbrella-that of
Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasemen ...
at the 1938
Munich Conference The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, Germany, the United Kingdom, French Third Republic, France, and Fa ...
and the failure of the British policy of
appeasement Appeasement in an international context is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the UK governm ...
.


Versions and presentation

In 1938, the object was presented mostly hanging from the ceiling, 1940 Paalen opted for a museum-like presentation on a pedestal. Two versions have been preserved: The first one with eight segments, ''Nuage articulé'' (1937), was kept by Geo Dupin and sold in the 1970s to the
Moderna Museet Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö in t ...
, Stockholm, bought by the Swedish art historian Pontus Hultén, where it is still visible today. The second one with 10 segments, '' Nuage articulé II '' (1939/40) was executed by Paalen after his arrival in Mexico in September 1939 for the International Surrealist Exhibition in Mexico City (opening January 1940), as due to the war objects from Paris could not be shipped. It was kept by Ines Amor, the owner of the Galeria de Arte Mexicano, who had organized the exhibition in 1940, was restored in 1956 by Paalen and is now as permanent loan in the Austrian Gallery in the Belvedere, Vienna. It was exhibited recently several times: 2011 in the
Schirn Kunsthalle The Schirn Kunsthalle is a Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Germany, located in the old city between the Römer and the Frankfurt Cathedral. The Schirn exhibits both modern and contemporary art. It is the main venue for temporary art exhibitions in F ...
, Frankfurt (exhibition ''Surreale Dinge''), 2012 in the Mjellby Konstmuseum, Halmstad (exhibition ''Surrealistiska ting''), 2013 in the Centre Pompidou, Paris (exhibition ''Le surréalisme et l'objet'')
Didier Ottinger Didier Ottinger, born in Nancy in 1957, is a French museum curator, art critic and author. He is known for organizing exhibitions and publishing books on modern and contemporary painting. He is now assistant director of the Centre Pompidou at the ...
(ed.), ''Dictionnaire de l'objet surréaliste'', Paris (Gallimard) 2013, reproduced p. 202
and 2018 in the Nationalgalerie Berlin, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart (Exhibition Hello World – Revision einer Sammlung). Since both original objects can no longer be loaned out for conservation reasons, the rights holders, the Wolfgang Paalen Gesellschaft e.V., in 2023 commissioned a replica of the first version from 1937 in an edition of three copies, which are available for loan to museums and exhibitions.


References


External links


''Nuage articulé I'' Moderna Museet, Stockholm


* ttp://farm8.static.flickr.com/7324/12944372255_e916a12e60.jpg ''Nuage articulé II'' im Centre Pompidou 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Paalen, Wolfgang Surrealist works 1937 sculptures