All Things Become Alive by the Touch of the Parabola: Wolfgang Paalen¿s Northwest Passage - Wolfgang Paalen¿s Northwest Passage

In May of 1939, thirty-three-year-old surrealist artist Wolfgang Paalen and his wife, the poet Alice Rahon, left Paris en route to Mexico City where they-d been invited to visit Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. First, however, they crossed Canada by rail to Prince Rupert and travelled the length of the Pacific Northwest Coast from Dz-i K-ih-i (Juneau), Alaska, to Vancouver Island and Vancouver. A few months earlier, in Paris, Paalen had witnessed the raising of a totem pole purchased by his friend, surrealist artist Kurt Seligmann, in Hagwilget the summer before. Like Seligmann and other surrealist colleagues, Paalen had developed a passion for the powerful works of art created by Northwest Coast artists. He felt drawn to visit the communities that had created these sophisticated artforms that, in his estimation, were the equal to any that had ever existed. He shared with his colleagues the surrealist obsession for collecting and devoted himself on the journey to seeking out and acquiring