COLLECTION NAME:
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
mediaCollectionId
ArtArtHiAAH~7~7
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
Collection
true
Image Record ID:
aahi0001830
image_record_id
aahi0001830
Image Record ID
false
Work Title (display):
Attacked by Birds
Image Title:
full view
Work Dates (display):
1956
Work Dates type:
creation
Work Creator (display):
André Masson (French, 1896-1987)
Work Creator gender:
male
work_creator_or_agent_gender
male
Work Creator gender
false
Work Creator notes (display):
French painter, printmaker, sculptor, stage designer, and writer, one of the major figures of Surrealism. He was born at Balagne and at the age of 8 moved with his family to Brussels, where he studied art part-time whilst working as a pattern drawer in an embroidery studio. In 1912 he moved to Paris, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts (see under Paris) until the outbreak of the First World War, when he joined the army. During the war he was seriously wounded and deeply scarred emotionally. His pessimism was accompanied by a profound and troubled curiosity about the nature and destiny of man and an obscure belief in the mysterious unity of the universe; he devoted the whole of his artistic activity to penetrating and expressing this belief. After the war Masson lived in the south of France until 1922, when he returned to Paris. Initially he was influenced by Cubism, but in 1924 he joined the Surrealist movement and remained a member until 1929, when he left in protest against Breton's authoritarian leadership. His work belonged to the spontaneous, expressive, semi-abstract variety of Surrealism, and included experiments with automatism, chance effects, and unusual materials (he sometimes incorporated sand in his paintings). Themes of metamorphosis, violence, psychic pain, and eroticism dominated his work. In 1936 he lived in Spain until the Civil War drove him back to France and in 19415 he took refuge from the Second World War in the USA. There his work formed a link between Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. It included a series of large canvases reflecting the carnage he had lived through, among them There is No Finished World (1942; Baltimore, Mus. of Art), which features disintegrating monsters symbolizing (in his own words) 'the preciousness of human life and the fate of its enterprises, always threatened, destroyed, and recommenced'. In 1945 Masson returned to France and two years later settled at Aix-en-Provence, where he concentrated on landscape painting, achieving something of the spiritual rapport with nature associated with Chinese painting. Apart from paintings his work included designs for the theatre, book illustrations, and several sculptures. He also wrote a good deal on art, including the two-volume book Métamorphose de l'artiste (1956). http://www.groveart… accessed 2008-06-12>
Work Style Period:
Surrealist
work_styleperiod
Surrealist
Work Style Period
false
Work Style Period:
20th century
work_styleperiod
20th century
Work Style Period
false
Work Worktype:
oil paintings
work_type
oil paintings
Work Worktype
false
Work Worktype:
paintings (visual works)
work_type
paintings (visual works)
Work Worktype
false
Work Category (VRC classification):
paintings
work_category__ucbaahvrc_classification_
paintings
Work Category (VRC classification)
false
Work Material and Technique (display):
oil and sand on canvas
Work Measurements (display):
75 cm (H) x 90 cm (W)
Work Location (Repository or Site) name:
Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)
Work Location (Repository or Site) role:
repository
Work Location (Repository or Site) refid:
270.1963
Work Location (Repository or Site) refid type:
accession
Work Location (Geographic) name:
New York, New York
Image Rights (display):
© Museum of Modern Art, New York. Licensed for educational use via Scholars Resource: Davis Art Images
Work Rights (display):
© André Masson
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Holding Institution:
University of Colorado at Boulder
Collection:
Art and Art History Visual Resources Collection
Collection info and contact:
For information about this collection, see