André-Aimé-René Masson (; 4 January 1896 – 28 October 1987) was a French artist.

Biography

Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, Oise, but when he was eight his father's work took the family first briefly to Lille and then to

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. He began his study of art at the age of eleven at the

Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels ( ''(ArBA-EsA)''; ) is an art school in Brussels, Belgium, founded in 1711. Starting from modest beginnings in a single room in Brussels Town Hall, Brussels' Town Hall, it has since 1876 been operat ...

in Brussels, under the guidance of Constant Montald, and later he studied in Paris. He fought for France during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and was seriously injured.McCloskey, Barbara. ''Artists of World War II''. London: Greenwood Press, 2005, , page 34. Masson shared a Paris studio with

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , ; ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan Spanish painter, sculptor and Ceramic art, ceramist. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona ...

Artistic works

His early works display an interest in

cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

. He later became associated with

surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

, and he was one of the most enthusiastic employers of automatic drawing, making a number of automatic works in pen and ink. Masson experimented with altered states of consciousness with artists such as

Antonin Artaud Antoine Maria Joseph Paul Artaud (; ; 4September 18964March 1948), better known as Antonin Artaud, was a French artist who worked across a variety of media. He is best known for his writings, as well as his work in the theatre and cinema. Widely ...

, Michel Leiris,

Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 8 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...

Jean Dubuffet Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (; 31 July 1901 – 12 May 1985) was a French Painting, painter and sculpture, sculptor of the School of Paris, École de Paris (School of Paris). His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called "low art" a ...

and Georges Malkine, who were neighbors of his studio in Paris. From around 1926 he experimented by throwing sand and glue onto canvas and making oil paintings based around the shapes that formed. By the end of the 1920s, however, he was finding automatic drawing rather restricting, and he left the surrealist movement and turned instead to a more structured style, often producing works with a violent or erotic theme. In 1932 he married his lover Paule Vézelay, a British abstract artist living in Paris, whose work also inspired him. He was living in Tossa de Mar, a small fishing village on the Costa Brava, at the outbreak of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, which is reflected in a number of his paintings (he associated once more with the surrealists at the end of the 1930s). Under the German occupation of France during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, his work was condemned by the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

as degenerate. With the assistance of Varian Fry in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, Masson escaped the Nazi regime on a ship to the French island of

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

from where he went on to the United States. Upon arrival in New York City customs officials inspecting Masson's luggage found a cache of his erotic drawings. Living in New Preston, Connecticut, his work became an important influence on American abstract expressionists, such as

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household ...

. Following the war, he returned to France and settled in

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...

where he painted a number of

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

s. Masson drew the cover of the first issue of

's review, ''

Acéphale ''Acéphale'' () is the name of a public review created by Georges Bataille (which numbered five issues, from 1936 to 1939) and a secret society formed by Bataille and others who had sworn to keep silent. Its name is derived from the Greek wikt:� ...

'', in 1936, and participated in all its issues until 1939. His brother-in-law, the psychoanalyst

Jacques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, ; ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Sigmund Freud, Freud", Lacan gave The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, year ...

, was the last private owner of

Gustave Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( ; ; ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the ...

's provocative painting '' L'Origine du monde'' (''The Origin of the World''); Lacan asked Masson to paint a

surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

variant.

Family

His son, Diego Masson (born 1935), is a conductor, composer, and percussionist, while another son, Luis Masson, is an actor. His daughter, Lily Masson (1920–2019), was a painter.Masson, Lily
(1920-2019) international form. Painter. - Daughter of the painter and engraver André Masson. ''BnF Catalogue generale.''

Bibliography

* André Breton. ''Le Surréalisme et la Peinture''. Paris: Gallimard/NRF, 1928 (French). **2nd, expanded edition: New York/Buenos Aires: Brentano's, 1945 (French). **New, revised and vastly expanded edition: Paris: Gallimard, 1965, reprinted 1979 (French). **English edition: ''Surrealism and Painting''. London: MacDonald, 1972. ISBN 0-356-02423-7. Translated by Simon Watson-Taylor. *

Robert Desnos Robert Desnos (; 4 July 1900 – 8 June 1945) was a French poet who played a key role in the Surrealist movement. Early life Robert Desnos was born in Paris on 4 July 1900, the son of a licensed dealer in game and poultry at the '' Halles'' ma ...

and Armand Salacrou (eds.). ''André Masson''. Self-published, 1940. Anthology in limited edition, each copy initialed by André Masson. Texts by

Jean-Louis Barrault Jean-Louis Bernard Barrault (; 8 September 1910 – 22 January 1994) was a French actor, director and mime artist who worked on both screen and stage. Biography Barrault was born in Le Vésinet in France in 1910. His father was 'a Burgundi ...

André Breton André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...

Paul Éluard Paul Éluard (), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (; 14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement. In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal ...

, Armel Guerne, Pierre Jean Jouve, Madeleine Landsberg, Michel Leiris, Georges Limbour, Benjamin Péret (French). Reprinted 1993 by Éditions André Dimanche, in Marseille. * André Breton and André Masson: ''Martinique. Charmeuse de serpents''. Paris: Sagittaire, 1947. Reprinted by Jean-Jacques Pauvert, Paris, in 1972. **English edition: ''Martinique: Snake Charmer''. "Surrealist Revolution Series". Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008. ISBN 0-292-71765-2. Translated by David W. Seaman. * Georges Limbour and Michel Leiris. ''André Masson et son univers''. Geneva: Les Trois Collines, 1947 (French). Includes poem "André Masson" by Leiris, and Masson's portrait of Breton and a self-portrait. **English edition: ''André Masson and His Universe''. London: Horizon, 1947. a. o. Same edition with supplemented partly translations by Douglas Cooper. * Georges Limbour ''André Masson: dessins''. Collection "Plastique". Paris: Éditions Braun, 1951 (French). * André Masson. ''Entretiens avec Georges Charbonnier'', préface de Georges Limbour. Paris: René Julliard, 1958 (French). Reprinted 1995 by Éditions André Dimanche, Marseille. * André Masson. "Dissonances". In: ''X'' magazine, Vol. I, No. III (June 1960). Reprinted in: David Wright (ed.): ''An Anthology from X''. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-19-212266-5. *

Daniel Guérin Daniel Guérin (; 19 May 1904 – 14 April 1988) was a French libertarian-communist author, best known for his work '' Anarchism: From Theory to Practice'', as well as his collection ''No Gods No Masters: An Anthology of Anarchism'' in which h ...

. ''Eux et lui: suivi de commentaires, et orné de cinq dessins originaux par André Masson''. Monaco: Éditions du Rocher, 1962. (French). Reprinted Lille: GKC (Question de genre), 2000. * Hubert Juin. ''André Masson''. Paris: Le musée de poche, 1963 (French). * Gilbert Brownstone. ''André Masson''. Milano: Galleria Schwarz, 1970 (English). * José Pierre. ''Surrealism''. "History of Art". London: Heron Books, 1970. ISBN 0-900948-72-8. * José Pierre. ''Surrealist Painting, 1919–1939/1940–1970''. "The Little Library of Art" 102 &103. London and New York: Methuen and Tudor, 1971. * Jean-Claude Clébert, ''Mythologie d'André Masson''. Genève: Éditions Pierre Cailler, 1971 (French). * Françoise Levaillant (as Françoise Will-Levaillant). ''André Masson, période asiatique 1950–1959''. Paris: Galerie de Seine, 1972 (French). * André Masson. ''La Mémoire du monde''. Geneva: Skira, 1974 (conversations with Gaétan Picon). (French) * Gilbert Brownstone. ''André Masson: vagabond du surréalisme''. Paris: Éditions Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 1975. ISBN 2-243-00081-4 (French). Interviews. * René Passeron. ''André Masson et les puissances de signe''. Paris: Denoël, 1975 (French). * Françoise Levaillant (ed.). ''André Masson. Le Rebelle du Surréalisme''. Paris: Éditions Hermann, 1976. Reprinted 1994 (French). * Jean-Clarence Lambert. ''André Masson''. Paris: Éditions Filipacchi, 1979 (French). * Carmine Benincasa. ''André Masson, 1941–1945: Water, Air, Earth, Fire''. New York: Marisa del Re Gallery, 1981 (French). * Françoise Levaillant. ''L'oeuvre d'André Masson: essais sur l'art et les savoirs dans la première moitié du XXe siècle''. Paris: Université de Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne, 1986 (French). Ph.D. (doctoral thesis supervisor René Jullian). * Françoise Levaillant (ed.). ''André Masson: les années surréalistes. Correspondance 1916–1942''. Lyon: La Manufacture, 1990 (French). * Florence de Mèredieu. ''André Masson: les dessins automatiques''. Paris: Blusson, 1988. (French). * Bernard Noël. ''André Masson, la chair du regard''. Collection L'art et l'écrivain. Paris: Gallimard, 1993. ISBN 2-07-011258-6 (French). * Dawn Adès. ''André Masson''. London: Academy Editions, 2004. ISBN 1-85490-314-4. * Kai Buchholz and Klaus Wolbert (eds.). ''André Masson. Bilder aus dem Labyrinth der Seele.'' Exhibition catalogue, Darmstadt/Frankfurt a. M.: Institut Mathildenhöhe, 2003. ISBN 3-925782-43-5 (German). * Armel Guerne. ''André Masson ou les autres valeurs''. Roy (Belgique): Les Amis d'Armel Guerne, 2007. (French). * Clark V. Poling. ''André Masson and the Surrealist Self''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. ISBN 0-300-13562-9. * ''André Masson. Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, 1919–1941''. Vaumarcus: Éditions ArtAcatos, 2010. Catalogue by Guite Masson, Martin Masson, and Catherine Loewer, preface by Bernard Noël, text by Dawn Adès, biography by Camille Morando. ISBN 2-940452-00-8 (French). * Hélène Parant, Fabrice Flahutez, and Camille Morando. ''La bibliothèque d'André Masson. Une archéologie''. Paris
Artvenir
2011. (French).

References

External links

Masson
at the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

.
Short biography.Müller-Yao, Marguerite: Informelle Malerei und chinesische Kalligrafie, Dortmund 2002
* * Interview with André Masson on ''Acéphale'' i
Black Sun Lit
(October 2016) {{DEFAULTSORT:Masson, Andre 1896 births 1987 deaths People from Oise 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists French male painters French modern painters French surrealist artists Artists from Aix-en-Provence Painters from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur People from New Preston, Connecticut