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André Masson Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

French, 1896-1987

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.

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Artist: André Masson
1933 drawing by French artist Andre Masson 'Le Cavalier Amoureux'
By André Masson
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
Andre Masson (French, 1896 – 1987) Le Cavalier Amoureux Pastel on paper Signed and dated ‘Andre Masson, 1933’ 17.1/2 x 23.3/8 in. (44.5 x 59.2 cm.) Frame measurements: 80 x 95cm. Pr...
Category

20th Century Abstract André Masson Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pastel

La Velleda
By André Masson
Located in New York, NY
La Velleda, circa 1947, by Andre Masson (1896-1987) Pastel on paper 35 ½ in x 28 ¾ inches unframed (90.17 x 73.03 cm) 50 ¼ x 42 ¾ inches framed (127.64 x 108.59 cm) Signed lower righ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Surrealist André Masson Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Pastel

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Previously Available Items
Loving embrace - Original Pencil Drawing
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Located in Paris, IDF
André Masson (1896-1987) Loving embrace Original pencil drawing Signed with the artist's stamp on the back (see photo) On 37 x 27 cm tracing ...
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André Masson figurative drawings and watercolors for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic André Masson figurative drawings and watercolors available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by André Masson in crayon, paper, pastel and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large André Masson figurative drawings and watercolors, so small editions measuring 24 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Sandra Phipps MacDiarmid, Paul Shimon, and David Dew Bruner. André Masson figurative drawings and watercolors prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $6,593 and tops out at $6,593, while the average work can sell for $6,593.

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