André Masson

Galerie Simon, Paris
Collection Vittorio Levi
Acquis du précédent par le propriétaire actuel

Berne, Kunst Museum, Massacres Mythologies Metamorphoses, 1996, no. 62
Castellón, Fondacion Caja Castellón, Masson en Espagne, 2007
Bilbao, Fondacion Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa, 2007
Paris, Musée de la Poste, Le Bestiaire d'André Masson, 2009

Marie Zawisza, 'Obsessions d'André Masson', Arts Magazine, no. 33, Paris, avril 2009, pp. 76-78, reproduit p. 78

Please note that measurements in inches are incomplete in the printed catalogue and should read 25 3/4 x 17 7/8 in. The canvas is not lined. There is a 2cm-long very minor (invisible and unimportant) superficial diagonal surface scratch in the lower right quadrant to the left of the knee of the red figure. Otherwise, this work is in very good original condition.
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signed 'André Masson' twice (upper left and lower right), oil on canvas. Painted in 1936.

Couleurs électriques, lignes agressives qui zèbrent la composition de coups de tonnerre, insectes mystérieux aux proportions monstrueuses, personnages hiératiques tenant conseil au milieu d'une joyeuse apocalypse, Les Magiciens d'André Masson est une œuvre en tout point emblématique de la période espagnole de l'artiste, où il vécut de 1934 à 1936. Le domaine onirique est très souvent la source de ses créations : les animaux se voient transposés dans un lieu où les références au réel bien que toujours présentes (montagne, rocher, soleil par exemple) sont amoindries par l'absence de horschamps du cadrage. Ils pénètrent ainsi dans une atmosphère particulièrement mystérieuse, un univers où les insectes semblent flotter dans l'espace du tableau jusqu'à s'identifier à de simples signes plastiques.

Dans une lettre à Jean-Paul Clébert de janvier 1935, Masson évoque une nuit à la belle étoile après s'être égaré, en plein hiver, sur le Montserrat : "Angoisse entre deux abîmes, le vertige du haut en même temps que le vertige du bas. J'ai cru que je devenais cinglé. Puis, le matin, sublime, cosmique et religieux (...) comme Moïse attendant l'arrivée du Seigneur" (cité dans Berne, musée des beaux arts, André Masson : Massacres, Métamorphoses, Mythologies, 1996, catalogue de l'exposition, p. 141).

 

With its potent use of electric colours, dramatic swirling lines of lightening, mysterious insect-like creatures of monstrous proportions and the apocalyptic, hieratic nature of the assembled group, Les Magiciens is superbly emblematic of André Masson's Spanish period, where the artist lived between 1934 and 1936. The domain of dreams was a frequent source of inspiration for Masson: his creatures find themselves in places that, whilst they often retain some reference to the real (a mountain, a rock, or the sun for example), leave the viewer's imagination no limits as to the possibilities of the locale situated outside of the visible frame. The creatures of Masson's Les Magiciens find themselves deep within a particularly mysterious and atmospheric universe, one where insects appear to float in the undefined space of the canvas until they resemble nothing more than plastic signs. In a letter to Jean-Paul Clebert of January 1935, Masson evokes a beautiful starry night, in the middle of winter, when he had got lost on the mountainside of Montserrat: "anxiety between two extreme abysses, vertigo in fear of the summit above, vertigo in fear of the void below. I believed that I was going mad. And then, the dawn, sublime, cosmic and religious [...] like Moses awaiting the arrival of the Lord" (quoted in André Masson : Massacres, Métamorphoses, Mythologies (exhibition catalogue), Berne, Kunstmuseum, 1996, p. 141).