Andre Masson / Surrealism

- Andre Masson was a French surrealist artist. He worked with paint, sculpture, illustration and also design and writing.
- Worked as a pattern-drawer in an embroidery studio in Brussels while he was studying.
- Served in the French army 1914-19 and was seriously wounded
- Was part of the Surrealists from 1924-9
- Early work shows interest in Cubism
- Worked with automatic drawing in pen and ink
- Forced himself to work under strict conditions, for example: for 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 1926 he experimented by throwing sand and glue onto canvas and making oil paintings based around the shapes that formed.
- Left the Surrealist movement at the end of the 1920s because he felt automatic drawing had become restricting
- Started to create more structured work, often with a violent or erotic theme, and made a number of paintings in reaction to teh Spanish Civil War
- He once again associated with the surrealists at the end of the 1930s
- Important influence on American abstract artists, such as Jackson Pollock

'Pedestal Table in the Studio' 1922
Oil paint on canvas

'Guitar and Profile' 1923-4
Pastel on paper

'Ibdes in Aragon' 1935
Oil paint on canvas

'The Red Lands and the Montagne Sainte Victoire' 1948
Oil paint on canvas

'Star, Winged Being, Fish' 1955
Oil, sand and glue on convas

'Kitchen Maids' 1962
Oil paint on canvas

'Bullfighting' 1937

Automatic drawing 1924

Not really a fan of his work, bit too abstract for me, however I do like the sand and glue artworks, I think these are a good idea and might try some myself. His work varies greatly between styles, even the paintings done in the same medium are all very different to each other. -Deep thought; as an artist, is your purpose to choose a style and stick to it, or is it to experiment your whole life? Hmm...-

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/andre-masson-1590

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Masson

http://surrealismfall2012.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/andre-masson-and-the-automatic-drawing/