Birth of Birds

1923

Meets Miró, Artaud and Leiris

In 1923 Masson meets Joan Miró, Antonin Artaud and Michel Leiris. In the early 1920s they, together with Georges Bataille, Jean Dubuffet and Georges Malkine, regularly gather at his studio, which he shares with Miró, and experiment with altered states of consciousness.

1924

Joins Breton's Surrealist group

Together with Leiris and Artaud, Masson joins the Surrealists led by André Breton and becomes one of the most enthusiastic practitioners of automatic drawing, making a number of automatic works in pen and ink. Other accounts say he entered the Surrealist circle as early as 1923; later he takes part in the First Surrealist Exhibition at the Galerie Pierre.

1924

Befriends Georges Bataille

Masson becomes friends with Georges Bataille, later illustrates his books, contributes to the journal “Acéphale” and deeply absorbs his philosophy of eroticism and violence.

c. 1926

Brings automatism into painting: glue and sand

Masson pours glue onto the canvas, adheres sand to the wet surfaces and adds painted areas inspired by the sandy shapes that formed at random.