André MASSON: Le Surréalisme révolutionnaire: Parcours Paris Surréaliste

Committed and sensitive to the spirit of his time, the artist maintained fruitful artistic collaborations, notably with Georges Bataille. Masson's art is in continuous renewal. Claiming a “native disposition for variety”, his prolific output is marked by incessant inventiveness, summed up by André Breton's enthusiastic phrase: “L'éclectisme dirige, rien de plus beau”. The exhibition André Masson: Le surréalisme révolutionnaire (André Masson: Revolutionary Surrealism) aims to reveal all the facets of Masson's work: from the artist's cubist beginnings, imbued with a surrealist imagination, through his sables and automatic drawings, to the Massacres of 1932-34, the paroxysm of the century's violence in the artist's work.

 

Paintings from the American period show the artist's influence on the post-war abstract school on both sides of the Atlantic : American abstract expressionism and French lyrical abstraction. The 1950s also marked Masson's “Chinese period”, in which he again renewed himself, this time by inventing an abstract language inspired by the archaic Chinese pictographic alphabet. All of Masson's creative periods will be represented by some thirty works.An outstanding draughtsman, works on paper by the artist will complete the exhibition, including automatic drawings, a major invention of the surrealist movement. A total artist, several of Masson's major sculptures will also be on show.