André Masson1974 Andre Masson 'Le Septieme Chant I' Surrealism Black & White France Etching 1974
1974
About the Item
- Creator:André Masson (1896-1987, French)
- Creation Year:1974
- Dimensions:Height: 27 in (68.58 cm)Width: 23 in (58.42 cm)Depth: 0.1 in (2.54 mm)
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Brooklyn, NY
- 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: Brooklyn, NY
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 14 days of delivery.
- After Robert Motherwell 'Dance I' 1979 - EtchingBy Robert MotherwellLocated in Brooklyn, NYPaper Size: 14 x 26.5 inches ( 35.56 x 67.31 cm ) Image Size: 14 x 26.5 inches ( 35.56 x 67.31 cm ) Framed: No Condition: A-: Near Mint, very light signs of handling Additional...Category
1970s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsEtching
- Raphael Soyer-Gentlemen From Cracow-EtchingBy Raphael SoyerLocated in Brooklyn, NYHand colored etching. Four Images depicting A lady dancing, a Jewish man making a shoe, a Jewish man sewing and 2 Jewish musicians playing a violin and a flute. Edition 139 of 150. F...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsEtching
- 1987 Glenn Goldberg 'Paco + J.J.'By Glenn GoldbergLocated in Brooklyn, NYPaper Size: 35.75 x 29.5 inches ( 90.805 x 74.93 cm ) Image Size: 30.25 x 22.75 inches ( 76.835 x 57.785 cm ) Framed: No Condition: A: Mint Additional Details: Titled, Numbered...Category
1980s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsEtching
- WOLF KAHN Southampton Barn, 1999 - SignedBy Wolf KahnLocated in Brooklyn, NYPaper Size: 22.25 x 24 inches ( 56.515 x 60.96 cm ) Image Size: 11 x 14 inches ( 27.94 x 35.56 cm ) Framed: No Condition: A: Mint Additional Details: Signed, Dated, and Numbered out...Category
1990s Prints and Multiples
MaterialsEtching
- 1989 Mark Kostabi 'Rare Oedipus' Contemporary USA EtchingBy Mark KostabiLocated in Brooklyn, NYPaper Size: 15.5 x 11.25 inches ( 39.37 x 28.575 cm ) Image Size: 4.5 x 3 inches ( 11.43 x 7.62 cm ) Framed: No Condition: A-: Near Mint, very light signs of handling Additiona...Category
1980s Prints and Multiples
MaterialsEtching
- Wayne Gonzales-Cars-18" x 14"-Etching-2014By Wayne GonzalesLocated in Brooklyn, NYFrom the Wayne Gonzales portfolio ""Crowd"" which contained five copper plate etchings. Printed on Hahnemuhle 300 GSM Paper In an Edition of 40 with 10 artist's proofs Hand signed an...Category
2010s Contemporary Prints and Multiples
MaterialsEtching
- L'Italienne after Modigliani, Aquatint Etching by Jacques VillonBy Jacques VillonLocated in Long Island City, NYArtist: Jacques Villon (after Amadeo Modigliani) Title: L'Italienne Year: 1926 - 1927 Medium: Color aquatint etching, signed Modigliani in the plate; signed in pencil by Villon uppe...Category
1920s Impressionist Portrait Prints
MaterialsAquatint, Etching
- Abstract Etching by Gilou BrilliantBy Gilou BrillantLocated in Long Island City, NYArtist: Gilou Brillant (1935- ) Title: Untitled - 10 Year: 1975 Medium: Aquatint Etching with Carborundum, signed in pencil Paper Size: 15 x 11 inches / 38 x 28 cmCategory
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
MaterialsEtching, Aquatint
- Red Lithograph by Hong HaoBy Hong HaoLocated in Long Island City, NYArtist: Hong Hao, Chinese (1965 - ) Title: Untitled (Red) Medium: Lithograph, Signed and Numbered in Pencil Edition: 175 Paper Size: 29 x 21 Inches (73.66 x 53.34 cm)Category
Late 20th Century Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints
MaterialsEtching
- Veduta delle Antiche Sostruzioni, Vintage Cityscape Etching by Giovanni PiranesiBy Giovanni Battista PiranesiLocated in Long Island City, NYArtist: Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian (1720 - 1788) Title: Veduta delle Antiche Sostruzioni Portfolio: Vedute di Roma Year: 1776 Medium: Etching ...Category
1770s Old Masters Landscape Prints
MaterialsEtching
- "Harvest (Sugar Beets), " Aquatint Etching by Manuel Robbe, circa 1910By Manuel RobbeLocated in Long Island City, NYThis etching with aquatint was created by French printmaker Manuel Robbe. Robbe’s innovative techniques, along with his sense of color harmony and his choice of subjects: stylish wom...Category
1910s Impressionist Figurative Prints
MaterialsEtching, Aquatint
- Bonzes - Etching on Japan Paper by G. F. Bigot - Tokyo 1886By George Ferdinand BigotLocated in Roma, ITBonzes is a drypoint on Japon paper, etched on leather, made by Georges Ferdinand Bigot (Paris, 1860 - 1927). From Croquis Japonais, a print suite of 21 drypoints, a collection published at the author's expense in Tokyo in 1886. Titled on plate on the lower right margin, signed on plate on the lower left "G. Bigot". Overall very good conditions, except for some sporadic minor stains on the lower margin. In this modern art print, two bonzes are represented during a Buddhist religious ceremony. The black and gray palette is very broad. Bónzo, literally "master of the cell" or, according to others, bōshi, i.e. "master of the law", is the title given to religious men...Category
1880s Figurative Prints
MaterialsEtching