Andre Masson 1896 - 1987
Combat d'animaux, 1929
Signed
Pastel on paper
19.9 x 24.8 in, 50.5 x 63 cm
Exhibitions
2001-2002, Franfurt,Die Galerie, André Masson
Retrospektive, 15 novembre-12 janvier, rep.p5
1929 was a dramatic year for Masson: he was expelled from
the Surrealist group by André Breton and had disagreements
with both his wife Odette Cabalé and his dealer Daniel-Henry
Kahnweiler. In a year of personal and artistic tensions, Masson
began to depict conflict and violence between animals in a
series of pastel drawings on paper.
Although Masson was amongst a number of artists, including
Miró, who had broken away from the Surrealist circle in 1929,
he continued to use various Surrealist techniques in his work.
Masson, Ernst and Miró all employed automatic drawing as
a means of retrieving images from the unconscious mind.
Masson was aware, however, that there were two phases to the
process: "The first graphic apparitions on the paper are pure
gesture, rhythm, incantation... In the second phase, the image
(which was latent) reclaims its rights". In each of these drawings
animals emerge from the abstract web of lines and swirl
of outlines.
At this time Masson and his fellow dissident Surrealist Georges
Bataille made numerous trips to the abattoirs of Vaugirard
in Paris. Bataille published photos and wrote essays on the
