- André Masson
André-Aimé-René Masson (
January 4 ,1896 –October 28 ,1987 ) was a Frenchartist .Masson was born in
Balagny-sur-Thérain , near Senlis in Picardy, but was brought up inBelgium . He studied art inBrussels andParis . He fought for France inWorld War I and was seriously injured.Masson's early works display an interest in
cubism . He later became associated withsurrealism , and he was one of the most enthusiastic employers ofautomatic drawing , making a number of automatic works in pen and ink. Masson would often force himself to work under strict conditions, for example, after long periods of time without food or sleep, or under the influence of drugs. He believed forcing himself into a reduced state of consciousness would help his art be free from rational control, and hence get closer to the workings of his subconscious mind.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 automatism 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, and making a number of paintings in reaction to the
Spanish Civil War (he associated once more with the surrealists at the end of the 1930s).André Masson drew the cover of the first issue of
Georges Bataille 's review, "Acéphale ", in 1936, and participated in all its issues until 1939.Under the German occupation of France during
World War II , his work was condemned by theNazis as degenerate. With the assistance ofVarian Fry inMarseille , Masson escaped the Nazi regime on a ship to the French island ofMartinique from where he went on to theUnited States . Upon arrival inNew York City , U.S. customs officials inspecting Masson's luggage found a cache of his erotic drawings. Denouncing them as pornographic, they ripped them up before the artist's eyes.Living in
New Preston, Connecticut his work became an important influence on Americanabstract expressionist s. Following the war, he returned to France and settled inAix-en-Provence where he painted a number of landscapes.Trivia
Masson's brother in law, the psychoanalyst
Jacques Lacan , was the last private owner ofGustave Courbet 's provocative painting "L'Origine du monde " ("The Origin of the World"); Lacan asked Masson to paint a surrealist variant.Bibliography
*Buchholz, Kai & Wolbert, Klaus (Hg.): "André Masson. Bilder aus dem Labyrinth der Seele." Frankfurt a. M. 2003.
*Kaiser-Strohmann, Dagmar. "Vom Aufruhr zur Struktur. Schriftwerte im Informel", Exhibition Catalogue, Gustav-Luebcke-Museum Hamm 2008, ISBN 3-9807898-6-1
*Mueller-Yao, Marguerite Hui: "Der Einfluss der Kunst der chinesischen Kalligraphie auf die westliche informelle Malerei", Diss. Bonn, Koeln 1985. ISBN 3-88375-051-4
*Mueller-Yao, Marguerite: "Informelle Malerei und chinesische Kalligrafie", in: "Informel, Begegnung und Wandel", (hrsg von Heinz Althoefer, Schriftenreihe des Museums am Ostwall; Bd. 2), Dortmund 2002, ISBN 3-611-01062-6,
*Rolf Wedewer: "Die Malerei des Informel. Weltverlust und Ich-Behauptung", Deutscher Kunstverlag, Muenchen, 2007. ISBN 3422065601External links
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=1590&page=1 Masson at the
Tate Gallery .]
* [http://www.connectotel.com/masson Short biography.]
* [http://www.muelleryao.de/Informel-Dortmund-Buch(II)-Marguerite-1(monitor600).pdf Müller-Yao, Marguerite: Informelle Malerei und chinesische Kalligrafie, Dortmund 2002, ISBN 3-611-01062-6]
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