(Balagny/Oise 1896–1987 Paris)
Le braconnier, 1931, signed and dated 31, oil on canvas, 73 x 60 cm, framed

The work is registered in the Comité André Masson and is accompanied by a photo certificate of authenticity

Provenance:
Paul Rosenberg Gallery (No. Ph 3032)
Marie Harriman Gallery, New York
European Private Collection

Exhibited:
Chicago, Max Ernst – André Masson, The Arts Club, exh. cat. no. 9 (titled “The Poacher”)

Literature:
Cahiers d’Art, No. 6, A propos des oeuvres récentes d’André Masson, Paris 1931, pp. 231–242 with ill.
C. Morando, André Masson, Catalogue Raisonné de l’Oeuvre Peint, 1918–1941, ArtAcatos 2010, vol. II, p. 92, no. 10 with ill.

An extremely versatile artist, André Masson (Balagny, Oise, 1896 – Paris 1987) was the creator of a varied body of work which encompassed a number of artistic movements, including Cubism, Surrealism and even Abstract Expressionism.
In 1924 he met André Breton and joined the Surrealist group, a tortured relationship which would be ruptured on several occasions. Following an initial break from the Surrealists in 1928, the 1930s saw Masson experimenting with randomness and themes of germination, metamorphosis, battles and massacres, all executed with an emphasis on violence and eroticism. During this decade Masson’s work turned towards loose and swirling agglomerations of dreamlike images painted with a semi-automatic technique. Due to his fervent love of Nietzsche and Heraclitus, Masson attempted to explore the power of the ancient myths through a sort of psychological exorcism of his own demons via his art. Le braconnier exemplifies this style; it is searing in its frenzied, non-linear rhythms of burn marks scorched in black and grotesque, unreal geometric apparitions. Troubled for much of this decade, Masson’s art became ever more violent and tormented.
When a large portion of the European Surrealist group was transplanted to New York between 1938 and 1947, an unprecedented cultural exchange was established overseas. Masson, like other Surrealists fleeing from Vichy France, entered the United States in 1941. Although he had spent the war years in Roxbury, Connecticut, close to Alexander Calder, Masson frequently exhibited in New York and interacted with his Surrealist colleagues as well as members from the burgeoning New York School. Masson’s exile eventually turned out to be fruitful for both the productiveness and maturity of his artistic output and it saw him working on pieces that are considered among his best in terms of pictorial and philosophical inquiry.
Enfant effrayé par les ombres de la guerre acts as a source of support in this moment in the artist’s life. He turns innocently towards an inner setting far from the obscenity and ferocity of the world war. Decisively, nonetheless remaining faithful to Surrealist automatism, he outlines the terrified features of the child, while the simple palette emphasises the blood and disorder, the evil, in an apparent veiled echo of Pablo Picasso’s renowned Guernica.

Tags:
André Masson, Andre Masson