DYN (magazine)

DYN (derived from the Greek word κατὰ τὸ δυνατόν, that which is possible) was an art magazine founded by the Austrian-Mexican surrealist Wolfgang Paalen, published in Mexico City, and distributed in New York City, Paris, and London between 1942 and 1944. Only six issues were produced.

With his journal Paalen in his work as Editeur gave himself the opportunity to fully develop his intellectual abilities with the evident but nevertheless for himself surprising result that he temporarily advanced to one of the most influential art theorists during the war. In seven large essays and countless smaller articles and reviews he discussed in detail all current hot topics that also concerned the young artists in New York, and in response received their full attention: the new image as potential picture-being; morality, deliberated of Marxist means-end thinking; plastic automatism – deliberated of the bondage of preconceived literary contents; dialectical materialism – unmasked as rooted in nothing else than a cleverly exploited mental weakness; microphysics - as confirmation of the viewer-dependent, potential nature of all being; the flat and rhythmical canvases of cubism - as true origin of a new spatial adventure overcoming the painting as window; and over all the female Totem as a mantra for a dialogical self-expression. One of the main underlying notions of DYN was the attempt to reconcile diverging materialist and mystical tendencies in Surrealism with a new art-philosophy of contingency. Breton, however, reacted as deeply offended, and in the preface of VVV argued: "We reject the lie of an open surrealism, in which anything is possible".

Paalen dominated its contents as editor and contributed its major topics in seven large essays and numerous smaller reviews and articles. DYN's editorial board later enlisted a number of associated thinkers and artists, including Miguel Covarrubias, César Moro, Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Gordon Onslow Ford and Robert Motherwell. Each edition covered various subjects and themes, such as poetry, visual arts, anthropology, science, and philosophy, and was illustrated by a wide range of artists, including Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Alice Rahon, William Baziotes, Motherwell, Roberto Matta, Jackson Pollock, Harry Holtzman, and Henry Moore.

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