André Masson

André Masson  was a French painter, illustrator, and writer closely associated with Surrealism, though his career extended far beyond it. Born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Severely wounded in World War I, he carried the trauma into his art, which often explored themes of violence, desire, and metamorphosis. By the mid-1920s, he joined the Surrealist group around André Breton, experimenting with automatic drawing and chance effects that became hallmarks of the movement.

Masson’s work evolved restlessly. After breaking with Breton in the early 1930s, he turned toward mythological and natural themes, developing a style that fused figuration and abstraction with an intense, lyrical energy. During World War II, he lived in the United States, where his dynamic, gestural compositions influenced younger American artists, especially Jackson Pollock and the Abstract Expressionists. His exploration of unconscious forms, violence, and eroticism made him a crucial bridge between European Surrealism and postwar abstraction.

Returning to France in 1945, Masson continued to produce paintings, illustrations, and writings until his death in 1987. He participated in numerous international exhibitions, and his works are now housed in major institutions such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Remembered as one of the most experimental and multifaceted figures of 20th-century art, Masson sought to reveal the invisible impulses of the psyche through a language of forms both spontaneous and mythic.