PROVENANCE:
Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Briest Auction, Paris, June 16, 1993, Lin & Keng Gallery, Taipei
Acquired from the above by the present owner (c. 1995)

EXHIBITED:
André Masson, Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris, March 3 – April 9, 1977

ILLUSTRATED:
Le Jardin des Arts: Revue Mensuelle, Éditions Taillandier, Paris, 1977, issue no. 168 of April, color illustrated, cover page
André Masson, Lin & Keng Gallery, Taipei, 1995, color illustrated, plate no. 16

André Masson was a pioneer of 20th century action painting. Born in Oise, France, in 1896, he was a French painter whose works were closely associated with surrealism. He passed away in Paris in 1987, and during his lifetime was not only regarded as a painter but also a writer, philosopher, sketcher, sculptor, stage designer and fashion designer. As a young man, Masson studied art at Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, Brussels and École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris. The multiplicity of Masson’s works does not represent the advancement of any particular style. In his early years, he was influenced by Cezanne’s cubism, James Ensor’s symbolism and the Art Nouveau movement in Belgium. He served in the French Army in war time, and was wounded. After leaving the army, he lived in the south of France, then returned to Paris where he met Miró and Breton. He joined the surrealists in 1923 and in the following year began to experiment with the deeply emblematic “dessin spontané (automatic drawing),” a technique that advocates the rhythmic spontaneity of written symbols and non-logical writing. He created a number of automatic drawing works in pen and ink. Masson believed that “action” was as important as painting and sketching, which was why he became a pioneer of abstract expressionism and “action painting.” Masson would often force himself to work under extreme conditions, for example, after long periods of time without food or sleep, or under the influence of drugs. He believed that forcing himself into a reduced state of consciousness would help free his art from rational control, and hence become closer to the workings of his subconscious mind. From around 1926 he experimented by throwing sand and glue onto canvas and making oil paintings based on the shapes that formed. By the end of the 1920s, he had produced many works with violent or erotic themes, and created a number of paintings in reaction to the Spanish Civil War.

In 1940, he fled to the U.S. to escape the war with Breton and other contemporaries. During his stay in the U.S., Masson became interested in Indian and African American mythologies, and was also attracted to Chinese ink wash painting and calligraphy. Masson was a considerable influence on American artists Arshile Gorky and Jackson Pollock, who both deeply admired Masson’s automatism. Returning to France in 1945, Masson infused these vibrant impressions into his abstract expressionist works, in which a colorful lyricism had replaced his former automatism. During this period, his works were often considered as representations of abstraction. In the 1950s, he was especially enchanted with the abstract beauty of the universe and the theme of spontaneous symbols as well as themes focusing on spiritual expression.

In 1965, he was commissioned by the Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris to paint murals on its vaulted ceiling; that same year, Musee Nationale d'Art Moderne held the first large retrospective exhibition of Masson. His works exhibit rich cultural influence, especially elements pertaining to literature and philosophy. Entering the 1970s, his works began shifting to themes of symbolism and edification that examined the dialogue between expression of personal myth and cultural pictograms

Looking back on the development of art history, after the Second World War, the center of art shifted from France to America. Historical and cultural factors facilitated this change. Nazi Germany’s persecution led many exceptional artists, literary writers and scientists to leave their homes. The tolerant American culture opened the doors to these people in distress. Masson’s life in America was also an important stage in his artistic career. His art also profoundly influenced the development of American modern art. Then he went back to his motherland, returned to European tradition and maintained an elegant distance with the vigorous American modern art movement.

From the end of the war to the 1970s, abstract expressionism, pop art, photorealism, conceptual art, land art, and other art styles swept the art world. European artists were mostly immersed in post-war reflections. Influenced by consumer culture, American art emphasized worldliness. Yet Masson persisted with his style exploration. The work “Quatuor” was completed in 1974. At this time, the artist was already seventy. He still had exuberant creative passion and constantly broke his own boundaries. After experiencing years of abstract painting research, Masson’s paintings returned to figurative expression. In “Quatuor”, the character images are clear and distinguishable without deliberate realistic treatment. Color was still the dominator of the picture. The main body of the picture was constituted of large blocks of yellow, intermingled with red and cool colors of blue and black. It was harmonious without losing a sense of rhythm. The paint brush strokes that imitated pencil lines in the background were neatly arranged. They echoed the momentum of the objects depicted by the picture’s main body. In terms of styling, the work also had traces of the artist’s early classic works. The simplified and distorted styling of the characters cannot help but let people recall the artist’s early Cubist style works. The use of lines also retained the appeal of his early studies of Chinese calligraphy, which achieved the same goal as the artist’s work in 1962, “Kitchen-maids”.