André MassonFrench, 1896–1987Dessin automatique
May one see it?
Unknown
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum
Braunschweig, Germany
The owner is known; whether it is on view today is not.
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
Particulars
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum
- Image: Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Meanwhile, in the life of André Masson
The whole life1923
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.
