Untitled (Automatic Drawing) 1954

Wolfgang Paalen made this automatic drawing with ink, and probably a brush or pen, letting his hand and mind do their thing without too much interference. Look at how the ink bleeds into the paper, creating these thick, dark marks. It makes me think about the act of drawing as a kind of dance, a free flowing improvisation where anything can happen. I can imagine Paalen being in a kind of trance, letting his subconscious take over and guide the ink across the page. It’s like he’s channeling something from deep within. The thing that grabs me is the directness and immediacy of it all, not unlike some of the abstract expressionists like Motherwell, except Paalen was a Surrealist. I think he would have wanted to capture the raw energy and emotion of the moment, without getting bogged down in details. It’s about feeling and intuition, not about representation. All these automatic drawings are testaments to the boundless creativity and the power of the unconscious mind.