2024 is the centenary year of the birth of Surrealism in the visual arts, literature and cinema. In Paris, the birthplace of Surrealism, an exhibition of one of its most marketable founding fathers, André Masson, was prepared for the anniversary.
André Masson was one of the most prominent masters of 20th century art, notes curator Chiara Parisi, head of the current exhibition and director of the Pompidou-Metz Center.
In honor of the centennial of the publication of the first Manifesto of Surrealism, Chiara Parisi aims to revive the legacy of the versatile artist, who showed himself in different fields – from sculpture and scenography to literature and poetry, writes the publication Artprice.
André Masson, an indomitable and courageous personality with a broad cultural knowledge, was convinced that the main task of art was to help the spiritual growth of humanity, to transform traditional values, to expose social, moral and religious hypocrisy, and to criticize the ruling circles responsible for imperialist wars and fascist decadence (as Chiara Parisi notes).
Portrait of French artist André Masson
André Masson (1896-1987) was a French painter and graphic artist. A graduate at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, he was a pupil of Constant Montald. A veteran of the First World War. Since 1922 he began active creative activity, in 1923 he met Juan Miró, Antonin Artaud, Michel Leiris and entered the circle of surrealists. He took part in the First Surrealist exhibition, which was held at the Galerie Pierre.
His first erotic works, created a few years after the end of the First World War, were already transformed in the early 1920s into experiments that became landmarks for many other artists, especially in the United States. Undoubtedly, his work had a key influence on the formation of American Abstract Expressionism.
In May 1941, Masson moved to New York City, settling near Alexander Calder. There he often socialized with other European émigrés, including André Breton, Arshile Gorky, and Marc Chagall. His works and lectures immediately inspired a younger generation of local artists. Remarkably, as early as the mid-1920s, Masson pioneered the techniques of automatism and free expression in the visual arts, using the method of sprinkling sand on a sticky surface. This gestural method became the foundation of post-war American Abstract Expressionism. During his lifetime, his work was exhibited twice at MoMA in New York: first as part of the Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism exhibit in 1936, and then in a solo retrospective in 1976.
André Masson: Number of lots sold at auction ( data provided by Artprice .com )
Surge of interest in buying André Masson paintings in 2021-2022
His surrealist works reach record value at auctions
André Masson was an innovator and seeker of the unknown in the art world. His first automatic drawings, created in December 1923, were the forerunners of automatic writing, which André Breton wrote about in his 1924 “Manifesto of Surrealism”. During the 1920s Masson was active in the Surrealist movement, remaining loyal to its ideas until 1945, despite several disagreements with André Breton. Works created during this period are the only works whose prices at auctions in Paris, London and New York have exceeded the million-dollar mark.
Gradiva, André Masson, 1939.
One of the most iconic works of this time is Gradiva, acquired by the Pompidou Center in Paris for $3 million with the support of the Heritage Foundation and the Society of Friends of the National Museum of Modern Art. This work was inspired by a character from a novel by Wilhelm Jensen published in 1903. The subject, on the borderline between the dream world and reality, had a significant influence on the Surrealists, particularly through the interpretations of Sigmund Freud. The novel tells the story of Norbert Hanold, a German archaeologist who is fascinated by an ancient bas-relief of a gracefully treading young woman. Immersed in this vision, he travels to Pompeii to search for it, where he meets his longtime childhood friend Zoe, who embodies Gradiva and helps him separate dreams from reality.
Three of the most outstanding sales of André Masson’s works at auction
Gradiva ( 1939 ). Oil on canvas, 97 by 130 cm
3,147,300 dollars. Sotheby’s Paris, 12.08.201.
Painting by Henré Masson Iconic image of Toledo,
Iconic image of Toledo, Vue emblématique de Tolède ( 1933-1939 ). Oil on canvas, 163 by 123 centimeters
$ 1, 791, 300. Christie’s London, 06/02/2006
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Hôtel des automates by André Masson.
Hôtel des automates ( 1939/41 ). Oil on canvas, 71 by 92 cm.
$ 1, 426, 500. Sotheby’s New York, 05/05/2010
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His most prized drawing is under 30 cm
In 1941, a group of Surrealist artists, including Victor Brauner, André Breton, Jacques Herold, and André Masson, created twenty-two sketches for postcards. These works appeared at the Villa Air-Bel in Marseille, where many artists took refuge from the Nazi threat while awaiting visas to the United States. André Masson created two designs, one done in black and white ink and the other in color using gouache. The latter, previously owned by André Breton, was sold for an impressive $274,000 in April 2003, far exceeding its estimated value of $5,000-$6,000, despite its modest size of only 27 centimeters. Today, the map is in the collection of the Musée Cantini in Marseille thanks to a donation from Obi and Una Elleue.
Le Jeu de Marseille, part of a sketch of 54 playing cards
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Le Jeu de Marseille, draft of the cards, la religieuse portugaise ( 1941 ) .
Sold for $274,000. Estimate:$5,400-$6,400.
Calmels-Cohen Paris, 14.04.2003 (Provenance: Collection of André Breton)
Various indicators of the André Masson market show a steady growth: Price dynamics of André Masson works presented at public auctions in 2023 ( copyright Artprice .com )
Little-known sculptures
The sculptural legacy of André Masson’s work is quite limited, numbering less than thirty pieces. His passion for creating sculptures began in 1927, and he realized his first plaster forms during his stay in the United States in 1942. In 1965, the Louise Leiris Gallery in Paris presented twelve new casts of his work. In the last years of his life, Masson revisited his sculptures, deciding with the Italian art dealer Due Chi to transform several of them into larger versions, culminating in seven new works. Three of these latest creations, cast by the workshop O. Brustolin in Verona between 1986 -1987, were offered for sale through the Koller auction house in Switzerland last December. They were priced between $5,000 and $16,000 – quite a modest sum for an artist of such stature. The highest price achieved by a Masson sculpture at auction is less than $130,000 (La Musicienne, 1942, Sotheby’s Paris).
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Three bronze works were sold at a Koller auction on December 1, 2023:
André Masson. Sculpture Femme à la chaise ou Femme enlevant
$5,200 for Femme à la chaise ou Femme enlevant sa chemise ( 1943 )
$15,000 for Animaux accouplés ( 1927 )
$ 16,080 for Dans la forêt ( 1943 ) ( twice the maximum estimate )
