André Masson (1896-1987) french painter, sculptor, illustrator, designer and writer, was born at Balagny (Oise). He spent most of his youth in Brussels, where he worked as a pattern-drawer in an embroidery studio and studied part-time at the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Then moved to Paris and studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts 1912-14. He served in the French Army 1914-19, and was gravely wounded. He lived in the South of France (1919-22), then returned to Paris where he met Gris, Derain, and later Miró and Breton. His first one-man exhibition was at the Galerie Simon, Paris in 1923. Paintings of forests, card players and still lifes, followed by experiments with automatic drawing. From 1924-9 he participated in the Surrealist movement. He made further works exploring chance effects, including sand paintings, as well as paintings of metamorphoses of animal and human forms, themes of germination, combats and massacres, with emphasis on violence and eroticism. He lived in Spain 1934-36 where he made paintings of bullfights, Spanish myths, etc. He took refuge in the USA between 1941-45, where he lived at New Preston, Connecticut, and made works inspired by the elemental forces of nature. He returned to France in 1945 and settled in Aix-en-Provence in 1947. Here he painted landscape themes such as mountains and waterfalls for several years, followed by some almost completely abstract pieces. His works also include sets and costumes for the theatre, book illustrations and a number of small sculptures.
This is part 3 of 15-part series on the works of André Masson:
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| c1940 Rotting Ram ink on paper 36.5 x 26 cm |
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| 1941 Voracity charcoal on paper 63.2 x 48.6 cm |
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| 1941 Street Singer painted and printed paper with conté crayon, ink, pencil, gouache, leaf, insect wings, and sand on coloured paper 59.6 x 44.7 cm MoMA, New York |
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| 1941 Matriarchal Landscape oil on canvas 51.8 x 61 cm |
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| 1941 Martinique ink and charcoal on paper 66 x 50.6 cm |
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| 1941 Magic body colour, etching on paper 24.7 x 20.3 cm |
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| 1941 Caribbean Landscape ink on paper 52.1 x 66.2 cm MoMA, New York |
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| 1941 Bird Works oil on canvas 35.8 x 45.4 cm |
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| 1942 Fawn charcoal and brush and ink on paper mounted on canvas 61 x 45.7 cm |
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| 1942 Emblem etching, drypoint and aquatint 24 x 22.4 cm (plate) published by Wittenborn & Co. |
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| 1942 Coptic Mirror oil and sand on canvas 51 x 63.5 cm |
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| 1942 Bird Fascinated by a Snake gouache on paper 56.5 x 75.5 cm Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York) |
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| 1942 Baudelaire etching and drypoint 7.7 x 5.4 cm (plate) Published by Curt Valentin Buchholz Gallery, New York |
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| 1942 Mule ink on paper 65 x 45 cm |
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| 1942 Minotaur bronze 46.3 x 56 x 39.6 cm |
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| 1942 Meditation on an Oak Leaf tempera, pastel and sand on canvas 101.6 x 83.8 cm MoMA, New York |
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| 1942 Little Marianne ink on paper 31.5 x 19 cm |
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| 1942 Little Genius of Wheat etching and drypoint 35.3 x 24.7 cm (plate) Published by Curt Valentin Buchholz Gallery, New York |
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| 1942 Invention of the Labyrinth ink on coloured paper 58.7 x 46.4 cm MoMA, New York |
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| 1942 Woman serving Table bronze 65.3 x 43.8 x 63.3 cm |
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| 1942 Two Children bronze 15.4 x 12.3 x 7.9 cm Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York) |
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| 1942 The Sand Crab etching, engraving, and drypoint 30 x 22.4 cm (plate) Curt Valentin Buchholz Gallery, New York |
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| 1942 The genius of the species drypoint and engraving printed in sanguine 36.8 x 27.4 cm (plate) |
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| 1942 The Fruits of the Abyss etching 30.1 x 20.2 cm (plate) |
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| 1942 The Chrysalis bronze 62.6 x 42 x 31 cm |
c1942 Praying Mantis
The praying mantis became a kind of totem for Surrealist artists, for whom the ritual in which the female insect devours the male after mating was a compelling example of the link between sex and death. Masson raised what he called the "admirable insects" in his home, and they began to recur in his work beginning in 1934—the same year the Surrealist journal Minotaure featured an influential article on the insect by the French sociologist Roger Caillois. The insect's markedly anthropomorphic form, apparent in these drawings, increased its appeal for these artists. A bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti imagines a woman, in the form of a praying mantis,in the throes of either death or pleasure.
MoMA, New York
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| c1942 Praying Mantis ink on paper 34.9 x 58.4 cm MoMA, New York |
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| 1943 Repulsion bronze 66.3 x 124.8 x 47 cm |
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| 1943 Meditation of the Painter oil on canvas 132.1 x 101.6 cm MoMA, New York |
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| 1943 Hatching bronze 68.2 x 45.5 x 44 cm |
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| 1943 For the legendary Battle ink and pastel on paper 21 x 28 cm |
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| 1943 Condottiere Mask oil and sand on canvasboard 50.8 x 40.3 cm |
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| 1943 Andromeda tempera and sand on canvasboard 31.9 x 25.4 cm MoMA, New York |
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| 1943 Woman attacked by Birds oil on canvas 95.9 x 82 cm |
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| 1943 The Rooster and the Centauress ink on paper 56 x 76.2 cm |
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| 1943 The Rendez-Vous pastels on cardboard 62 x 47.5 cm |
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| 1943 The Idol pastels on cardboard 48.5 x 63.5 cm |
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| 1943 The Garden of Arcadia serigraph in colours on laid paper 53.3 x 75.2 cm (sheet) |
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| c1943 The War India ink, ink wash and charcoal on paper 62.5 x 48 cm |
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| 1944 The Kill oil on canvas 55.2 x 67.9 cm MoMA, New York |
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| 1944 The Child with the Mask I tempera and oil on canvas 51.2 x 50.8 cm |
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| 1944 Shadow and Light ink and pencil on paper 55 x 69 cm |
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| 1944 Pain Chinese ink on paper 35.5 x 26.7 cm |
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| 1944 Nocturne etching on paper 20 x 15 cm Published by Curt Valentin |
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| 1944 Werewolf pastel and ink on coloured paper 45.7 x 61 cm MoMA, New York |
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| 1944 The Pain charcoal on paper 51.2 x 47 cm |
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| 1945 Improvisation etching and aquatint on cream wove paper 19.7 x 14.8 cm |
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| 1945 Actéon tempera on canvas 31.1 x 25.7 cm |
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