André MassonSigned Letter by André Masson - 1940s - Surrealism1949
1949
About the Item
- Creator:André Masson (1896-1987, French)
- Creation Year:1949
- Dimensions:Height: 10.63 in (27 cm)Width: 8.27 in (21 cm)Depth: 0.08 in (2 mm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Insurance may be requested by customers as additional service, contact us for more information.
- Gallery Location:Roma, IT
- 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: Rome, Italy
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 14 days of delivery.
- Caffè Concerto...Alfabeto a sorpresa - Rare Original Edition - 1918By Francesco CangiulloLocated in Roma, ITOriginal edition of "Caffè Concerto...Alfabeto a sorpresa", published in 1918 in Milan, Edizioni Futuriste di Poesia, Marinetti. In 8º. In Italian. A wonderful selection of Futurist ...Category
1910s Futurist More Art
MaterialsPaper
- Manifeste Technique de la Sculpture Futuriste - Original Manifesto - 1912Located in Roma, ITManifeste technique de la sculpture futuriste. Edited in Milan, April 22, 1912, and printed in September of the same year. Written by Umberto Boccioni (Reggio Calabria, 1882– Chievo,...Category
1910s Futurist More Art
MaterialsPaper
- Autograph Letter by E. Prampolini - 1930sBy Enrico PrampoliniLocated in Roma, ITThis is an Autograph Letter Signed by Enrico Prampolini to the Countess A.L. Pecci Blunt. Paris, June 12th 1935. One page, double-sided. Excellent c...Category
1930s Futurist More Art
MaterialsPaper, Ink
- Lacerba - Complete Collection - 69 issuesLocated in Roma, ITOriginal Magazine. Florence, (Printers: Tip. A. Vallecchi), Jan 1913-May 1915, 4°, (h. I: 350x250 mm: aa, II-III 370x270mm) 16 pp. per issue (8 in y. III) numbered progressively by year. Complete collection (unbound) of the 69 issues of the famous fortnightly review (weekly in 1915) edited by Papini and Soffici. Lacerba was an Italian literary review (fortnightly at first, then weekly) started by Giovanni Papini and Ardengo Soffici in 1913 In Florence. The title is taken from a 14th Century poem, Lacerba, by Cecco d’Ascoli, as well as the line, “Quinonsicantaal mondodellerane” (“Here we don’t sing to the world of frogs”), used as a slogan printed below the masthead. Many of the most famous futurists contributed to thereview,so that it became the principal vehicle for futurist ideas and graphics between 1913 and 1914. “The intensity of its presence, its luck and the range of its coverage, its polemical tone as well as the richness and scattershot breadth of its subject matter, its language and themes, and its articles and pictures, place it among Europe’s leading avant-garde publications alongside France’s Les Soirées de Paris, Germany’s Der Sturm and Blaue Reiter almanac...Category
1910s Futurist More Art
MaterialsPaper
- Les Mans d'Arlequin - Pochoir by Gino Severini - 1930By Gino SeveriniLocated in Roma, ITLes Amans d'Arlequin is an artwork realized by Gino Severini in 1930. Pochoir from the Suite "Fleurs et Masques". Very good condition. Signed in plate on the lower right. Ref. Ca...Category
1930s Futurist Figurative Prints
MaterialsPaper, Stencil
- Trento - Bondone Corsa in Salita - Original Drawing by Fortunato Depero - 1928By Fortunato DeperoLocated in Roma, ITHand signed lower right: “F. Depero”. Certificate of authenticity by the Archive of Fortunato Depero. There are different versions of drafts that the Italian artist Fortunato Depero realized before the final Collage poster...Category
1920s Futurist Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
MaterialsPaper, Pencil, Color Pencil
- Italian Wool Felt Handmade Futurist Fortunato Depero Art Tapestry Wall HangingBy Ivana GaifasLocated in Surfside, FLIt is signed in a stitch Omaggio a Depero, Ivana, 2000 Fortunato Depero (1892 – 1960) was an Italian futurist artist and painter, writer, sculptor and graphic designer who worked in...Category
20th Century Futurist More Art
MaterialsWool, Felt, Thread
- Italian Wool Felt Handmade Futurist Fortunato Depero Art Tapestry Wall HangingBy Ivana GaifasLocated in Surfside, FLIt is signed in a stitch Omaggio a Depero, Ivana, 2000 Fortunato Depero (1892 – 1960) was an Italian futurist artist and painter, writer, sculptor and graphic designer who worked in...Category
20th Century Futurist More Art
MaterialsWool, Felt, Thread
- AcceptanceBy 00100011Located in East Hampton, NYThese are by Custom Order. There is a 4 to 5 week production time needed before shipping. Please read detail shot before purchasing. This was the most photographed piece at Art Basel...Category
2010s Futurist Mixed Media
MaterialsMixed Media
- AcceptanceBy 00100011Located in East Hampton, NYThese are by Custom Order. There is a 4 to 5 week production time needed before shipping. Please read detail shot before purchasing. This was the most photographed piece at Art Basel...Category
2010s Futurist Mixed Media
MaterialsMixed Media
- Nancy Cohen "Reversing Falls'By Nancy CohenLocated in New York, NYNancy Cohen Reversing Falls, 2018 paper pulp on handmade paper 49 x 53 in. This original abstract artwork by Nancy Cohen is constructed in her unique signature style of working with...Category
2010s More Art
MaterialsHandmade Paper
- Crimson DoorBy George SimmonsLocated in Troy, NYThis abstract painting focuses on two forms, one a rectangle combining purple and maroon, and the other an "L" shaped surround that is a brilliant Chinese red. The artist entitles the piece "Crimson...Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Abstract Paintings
MaterialsPaper, Charcoal, Crayon, Mixed Media, Acrylic