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André Masson

"Part of the meaning image is replaced by a substitute ..."

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Notes of biography

Seriously injured in Chemin des Dames in 1917, André Masson kept all his life an aggravated sensibility. Slaughters, blood, death, the extreme violence, the crudeness of bodies haunted him and his works.
He was born in 1896, studied to the Beaux-Arts of Brussels (1908-1912). Once in Paris (1922), he remained with difficulties in the city, met Max Jacob, Miro. He joined the surrealists in 1923, became friend with Artaud, Michel Leiris and Breton André. In 1929, he broke with Breton and got closer to Georges Bataille, published illustrations in reviews "Acéphale" and “La révolution surréaliste”. He left for Spain where he lived from 1934 till 1937, and joined up the war against Franco.
He contributed to the review "Minotaure” in1937 and after. Masson went into exile in the United States during the Second World War. There, he influenced durably Jackson Pollock with who he was bound.
His first exhibition was organized in 1928, it was the beginning of a very long list of exhibitions which lead his work to be hung on the whole world cymas-museums. After his death (1987), important retrospectives were organized (Albi, Aix-en-Provence, Paris, Kunstmuseum in Bern, etc.).
Masson’s first works were qualified as traditional paintings, then he was influenced by the fauvism and Cézanne. Later, the symbolism was determinedly present in his art. He created automatic drawings, surrealist canvases, produced a very important set of works on paper (etching, lithography, drawing), approached sculpture, illustrated poets.

Artists on display

The art and the artists display: proclamations, galleries, museums, personal or collective exhibitions. On walls or in shop windows, wise or rebels, posters warn, argue, show. Some were specially conceived by an artist for such or such event, other, colder, have only the letter.

Some were created in lithographic technic, most are simple offset reproductions. They are many those who like collecting these rectangles of paper, monochrome or in games of colours, in matt paper or brilliant, with many words or almost dumb.

We are happy also to be able to greet, by this pages, mythical galleries as those of Denise René, Louis Carré, Claude Bernard, Berheim Jeune, Maeght, Pierre Loeb and others.

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Complete work(s)

Complete work(s)
All the complete works

Bibliographic track and more

To read about the artist :
  • « Mythologie d'André Masson », J.-C. Clébert, Ed. Pierre Cailler, Genève, 1971
  • « A. Masson et les puissances du signe », R. Passeron, Denoël, 1975
  • « André Masson », W. Rubin, MNAM, Paris, 1977
  • « André Masson », José Pierre, Jean-Clarence Lambert, Ed. Filipacchi, 1979
  • « L’Aventure Surréaliste autour d’André Breton », José Pierre, Ed. Filipacchi, 1986
  • « André Masson, les dessins automatiques », Florence de Mèredieu, Ed. Blusson, 1988
  • « André Masson, la chair du regard », Bernard Noël, Gallimard, 1993
  • « André Masson », Dona Ades, Albin Michel, 1994
  • « André Masson : Le rebelle du surréalisme », Ed. Hermann, Paris, (1976), rééd. 1994
  • « André Masson and the surrealist self », Clark V. Poling, Yale University Press, 2008
To read from the artist :
  • « Le Vagabond du surréalisme », G. Brownstone, Ed. Saint-Germain-des-Près, 1975
  • « Entretiens », G. Charbonnier, Ed. Julliard, 1958 / Ed. A. Dimanche, Marseille 1995
Website :
www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/masson

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