André Masson, Iroquois Landscape, 1942

André Masson (1896–1987)
Iroquois Landscape, 1942
Ink on paper
Signed lower left
Dry stamp upper left
22 x 29 cm

André Masson (1896–1987)
André Masson began his training in painting at a very early age, studying at the Royal Academy of Brussels from 1907 to 1912, where he received a first prize in decorative arts. In 1912, he left Belgium and enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied until April 1914. After a trip to Tuscany, he enlisted in the infantry. Seriously wounded in the chest and left for dead for a time in a bomb crater, he spent time in various hospitals until the Armistice. Ever since the war, he maintained a lifelong aversion to warmongering, which he expressed in several of his works, including *Les Massacres* (1934).
After the war, Masson went to Collioure, following in the footsteps of Henri Matisse and André Derain, and finally to Céret, where he was influenced by both Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh. He married Odette Cabalé and settled in Montmartre after the birth of their daughter.
His career truly began in 1922. While his works reflected his interest in Cubism, his contact with Miró—with whom he shared a studio—led him toward an exploration of the irrational. He became friends with Kahnweiler, at whose gallery he exhibited in February 1924, selling all of his works. The poet and writer André Breton played a decisive role in his career, showing a keen interest in the theories of the unconscious developed by psychoanalysis. He joined the Surrealist group. In 1927, inspired by the principle of automatic writing developed by Breton, Masson created his first “automatic drawings.”
The year 1929 was one of major breaks: with his wife, with his first dealer, Kahnweiler—whom he left for Paul Rosenberg—and with Breton, whom he considered dogmatic. He then forged a strong friendship with Georges Bataille, for whom he illustrated *The Dossier of the Pineal Eye* and *The Solar Anus* in 1931. After reconnecting with Breton, he participated in Surrealist exhibitions in London (1936) and Paris (1938) but, until 1939, continued his collaboration with Bataille on the journal *Acéphale*, for which he was the sole illustrator.
Masson arrived in the United States in May 1941. He first settled in New York, where he reconnected with other European intellectuals and artists. His work inspired painters of Abstract Expressionism and gestural abstraction, such as Jackson Pollock.
Upon his return to France in October 1945, Masson designed the sets for *Hamlet* for the Compagnie Renaud-Barrault and for Jean-Paul Sartre’s *La Putain respectueuse*. In 1950, he published *Le plaisir de peindre*. His style softened considerably, to the point that he began to show an interest in Impressionism.
In 1954, Masson received the Grand Prix national des arts, and in 1965, André Malraux commissioned him to decorate the ceiling of the Théâtre de l’Odéon. Various retrospectives were dedicated to him: in 1964 in Berlin, in 1965 in Amsterdam and Paris, in 1976 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and another the following year at the Grand Palais in Paris.
More than 90 of the artist’s works are held at the Centre Pompidou, as well as at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery, and the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris, among others.

Ref: AM79A86LGF