André MassonNo title1970
1970
About the Item
- Creator:André Masson (1896-1987, French)
- Creation Year:1970
- Dimensions:Height: 19.69 in (50 cm)Width: 25.99 in (66 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Yellowed paper and frame marks.
- Gallery Location:Paris, FR
- Reference Number:
André Masson
Born in 1896 in Balagny-sur- Thérain, a small village in France, André Masson spent most of his youth in Brussels, Belgium working as a pattern maker at an embroidery atelier. Masson began his schooling in 1907 at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. In 1912, he relocated to Paris, where he attended the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1914, the artist was called to military duty for the First World War, where he was severely wounded and sent back to Paris. Much of Masson’s work is influenced by this trauma; his drawings and paintings executed during the 1920s represent battle scenes, blood, death, birds and fish. The strange realities of trench warfare and the immediate contiguity of life and death are drawn upon, and his imagery suggests a confrontation of life at an abnormal level of experience. His signature style deals with violence, evident in terrifying, fragmented figures, which reflect the horrors of the Spanish Civil War and WWII, as well as his troubled psyche in the aftermath of his service in WWI.
After WWI, Masson moved to the South of France, where he met Juan Gris, André Derain, Joan Miró and André Breton. Breton championed the Surrealist Manifesto and Masson joined in the group exhibition of the first Surrealists. An iconoclast, whose abrupt stylistic transitions defy classification, Masson also explored automatism (automatic drawing), a process that sought to express the creative force of the unconscious. These automatic drawings had no preconceived subject or composition. Like a medium channeling a spirit, Masson let his pen travel rapidly across the paper without conscious control. He soon found hints of images, fragmented bodies and objects, emerging from the abstract, lacelike web of pen marks. At times, Masson elaborated on these with conscious changes or additions, but he left the traces of the rapidly drawn ink mostly intact. Masson’s oeuvre explores several techniques of painting, drawing and sculpture and displays rich, colorful abstraction as well as monochrome imagery and automatic linear representations. An early Surrealist and student of Cubism, Masson went on to inspire the New York Abstract Expressionists. Masson developed a technique of automatic painting that retained the element of chance; he dripped glue onto paper to form drawings and then covered it with sand. These ‘sand paintings’ are unquestionably his most iconic style.
When Masson emigrated to the U.S. in 1939, he strongly influenced several American painters with this technique, the most evident example being Jackson Pollack. After his time in America, he returned to Europe and while living in Spain during the mid-1930s, he became enraptured with Spanish themes—bullfights, matadors and Spanish mythology. Masson finally settled down in France (Aix-en-Provence), where he took up a late interest in impressionistic landscape, but he ultimately came to a place where he painted nearly exclusively abstract images. Masson dedicated his life as an artist to encouraging the non-rational purpose in art, to the direct transference of subconscious thought and to the primal forces of conflicts that he experienced in the trenches of World War One. Masson sought to convey in his work a deeper reality of man’s behavior, his own complex personal imagery, and his belief that painting is not a matter of developing style but a part of life itself.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: PARIS, France
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 3 days of delivery.
- Personatge I Estels VBy Joan MiróLocated in Paris, FRAquatint, 1979 Handsigned by the artist in pencil and numbered 38/50 Publisher : Maeght (Barcelone) Printer : Joan Barbarà (Barcelone) Catalog : Dupin 109...Category
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsAquatint
- Portrait de Piero Crommelynck IIBy Pablo PicassoLocated in Paris, FREtching and aquatint, 1966 Handsigned by the artist in pencil and numbered 17/50 Publisher : Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris Printer : Crommelynck, Paris Catalog : Baer 1400 B c 1 73.00...Category
1960s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsEtching, Aquatint
- Oiseaux en périlBy Max ErnstLocated in Paris, FREtching and aquatint, 1975 Handsigned by the artist in pencil and numbered 26/100 Publisher : Éditions Georges Visat (Paris) Printer : Atelier Georges Visat (Paris) 54.50 cm. x 41.50...Category
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsEtching, Aquatint
- La peau des chosesLocated in Paris, FREtching, 1968 Handsigned by the artist in pencil and numbered 103/114Category
1960s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsEtching
- The encrypted prison of time - Fig. IBy Vladimir VelickovicLocated in Paris, FREtching, 1977 Handsigned by the artist in pencil and annotated HC X/XXI Publisher : Fata Morgana 56.00 cm. x 36.00 cm. 22.05 in. x 14.17 in. (paper) 41.00 cm. x 26.00 cm. 16.14 in....Category
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsEtching
- The StairsBy Zao Wou-KiLocated in Paris, FREtching, 1951 Handsigned by the artist in pencil and numbered 50/50 Publisher : L'Oeuvre gravée (Zurich) Printer : Atelier Georges Leblanc (Paris) Catalog : [Moestrup 66] 55.50 cm. x...Category
1950s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsEtching
- Canto Pisan, 1972By Zao Wou-KiLocated in London, GBZAO WOU-KI 1921- 2013 Beijing 1921 -2013 Switzerland (Chinese) Title: Canto Pisan, 1972 Technique: Complete Suite of Eight Original Hand Signed and Numbered Etchings and Aquatints ...Category
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsEtching, Aquatint
- Mexican Night IIBy Robert MotherwellLocated in London, GB44.5 x 44.5 cms (17.5 x 17.5 ins) Edition of 70 Signature:Signed "Motherwell" in pencil lower right Inscriptions:Numbered in pencil lower right; artist's chop mark lower right ...Category
1980s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints
MaterialsColor, Etching, Aquatint
- "Target With Plaster Cast Black and White" Drypoint Etching and AquatintBy Jasper JohnsLocated in Mount Laurel, NJArtist: Jasper Johns Title: Target With Plaster Cast Black and White Medium: Drypoint, Etching, Aquatint Edition: AP IV/XVI Date: 1990 Dimensi...Category
1990s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsDrypoint, Etching, Aquatint
- Abstract Composition - Original Etching by Hsiao Chin - 1977Located in Roma, ITAbstract composition is an original colored etching realized by Hsiao Chin in 1977. The artwork is hand-signed and dated in pencil on the lower right. Numbered on the lower left. E...Category
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsEtching
- Falling Shape - Original Etching by Giuseppe Santomaso - 1976By Giuseppe SantomasoLocated in Roma, ITFalling Shape is an original Contemporary Artwork realized by Giuseppe Santomaso (Venice, 1907 - Venice, 1990) in 1976. Original etching and aquatint on copper plate printed in 4 colors on Fabriano Rosaspina paper. Hand-signed on the lower right margin. Edition of 80 and XV artist proofs. Printed by Stamperia 2RC, Rome and published by 2RC Editrice, Rome. Mint conditions. Giuseppe Santomaso (Venice, 1907 - Venice, 1990), an Italian painter. In Paris he visits the great international exhibitions: in front of the works of Matisse, Braque, Pierre Bonnard and Picasso exhibited in the artistic capital of France he remains both admired and irritated. The first solo show of him takes place in Paris in 1939 (Galerie Rive Gauche).Category
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsEtching
- Portrait of a PainterBy Alex LazardLocated in Queretaro, QueretaroTitle: Portrait of a Painter Etching and soft-ground etching, in colors, 2017. Edtion of 30 printed on 100% cotton paper. Signed, titled and numbered in pencil. In excellent condit...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints
MaterialsEtching