André MassonSurrealist Woman1970
1970
About the Item
- Creator:André Masson (1896-1987, French)
- Creation Year:1970
- Dimensions:Height: 39.75 in (100.97 cm)Width: 325 in (825.5 cm)Depth: 1.5 in (3.81 cm)
- More Editions & Sizes:The image size is 24 x 18.75 inches, framed size is 39.5 x 32.5 inches.Price: $2,000
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:San Francisco, CA
- 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: San Francisco, CA
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 7 days of delivery.
- Interieur VenitienBy André MassonLocated in San Francisco, CAArtist: Andre Masson (French) Title: Interieur Venitien Year: 1975 Medium: Color lithograph Edition: Numbered 106/125 in pencil Paper: Rives Image size: 23 x 16.5 inches paper s...Category
1970s Surrealist Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Untitled 3By Roger Chapelain MidyLocated in San Francisco, CAArtist: Roger Chapelain Midy (French, 1904-1992) Title: Untitled 3 Year : Circa 1975 Medium: Color lithograph Edition: Unknown Paper: Silk paper Image size: 18 x 25.25 inche...Category
Late 20th Century Surrealist Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- UnknownBy Mahmoud FarshchianLocated in San Francisco, CAThis artwork "Untitled" is a color lithograph by acclaimed Iranian artist Mahmoud Farshchian, born 1930. It is hand signed and numbered 191/250 in p...Category
Late 20th Century Surrealist Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- UnknownBy Mahmoud FarshchianLocated in San Francisco, CAThis artwork "Untitled" is a color lithograph by acclaimed Iranian artist Mahmoud Farshchian, born 1930. It is hand signed and numbered 217/250 in p...Category
Late 20th Century Surrealist Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Les FondationsBy Arnau Alemany BatallaLocated in San Francisco, CAThis artwork titled "Les Fondations" c.1980 is an original color lithograph by noted Spanish surrealist artist Arnau Alemany Batalla, 1948-2020. It is ha...Category
Late 20th Century Surrealist Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- The BridgeBy Arnau Alemany BatallaLocated in San Francisco, CAThis artwork titled "The Bridge" c.1980 is an original color lithograph by noted Spanish surrealist artist Arnau Alemany Batalla, 1948-2020. It is hand s...Category
Late 20th Century Surrealist Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- HAMLET SUITEBy Salvador DalíLocated in Aventura, FLThis rare 10 piece series from 1973 is Dali's interpretation of Shakespeare's drama Hamlet. Dali paid homage to Shakespeare in several other works but this suite is considered to be ...Category
1970s Surrealist Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph, Engraving, Aquatint, Paper
- The Siren La SirèneBy Paul DelvauxLocated in London, GBPAUL DELVAUX 1897-1995 Antheit, Huy 1897-1995 Veurne (Belgian) Title: The Siren La Sirène, 1969 Technique: Original Hand Signed and Inscribed Lithograph in Colours on Arche...Category
1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- PhyrnéBy Paul DelvauxLocated in London, GBPAUL DELVAUX 1897-1995 Antheit, Huy 1897-1995 Veurne (Belgian) Title: Phyrné, 1969 Technique: Original Hand Signed and Inscribed Lithograph in Colours on Arches Wove Paper ...Category
1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Ponte Corvo Black & White SurrealistLocated in Eversholt, BedfordshirePrint Ponte Corvo black and white limited edition no2 of 50 In a moulded gilded frame length 91cm, height 75cm, depth 4cm Framers label on reverse L'Ariete Galleria Torino just pur...Category
1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Composition Of Diodora - Original Lithograph by Bruno Capacci - 1950Located in Roma, ITComposition Of Diodora is an original lithograph realized by Bruno Capacci in 1950. The artwork is part of an edition in 500 pieces by "La nef d'argent" Paris. In good condition, n...Category
1950s Surrealist Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Sed Libera Nos a Malo - Lithograph attr. to Salvador Dalí - 1966By Salvador DalíLocated in Roma, ITSed Libera Nos a Malo is a lithograph from the suite "Pater Noster", published by Rizzoli Editore, Milan, 1966. Signed and dated "1966" in plate on the lower right margin. In excellent conditions. Reference: R. Michel, L. W. Löpsinger, Dalì, Catalogue Raisonné of Prints II, Lithographs and Wood engravings, 1956-1980, p. 180, n. 1599. Pater Noster is a beautiful artists' book illustrated by the oldest and mystic Salvador Dalí. Nine colored plates protected by Japanese paper represent the verses of the Lord's Prayer. The pages of a 14th-century missal reproduce a Pater Noster in Gregorian chant...Category
1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints
MaterialsLithograph