Metamorphoses (Primary Title)

Andre Masson, French, 1896 - 1987 (Artist)

1941
French
Gouache (or tempera), sand, and pastel on canvas
Unframed: 28 × 23 3/4 in. (71.12 × 60.33 cm)
Framed: 33 1/2 × 29 3/8 in. (85.09 × 74.61 cm)
47.10.68
Painter, draftsman, and printmaker, Masson played a major role in the development of Surrealism. He fled German-occupied France in 1941 and remained in the United States until 1946. Metamorphosis was a central theme in Masson’s work. Like Max Ernst, who used frottage (pencil or charcoal rubbings) to unlock the powers of the unconscious, Masson experimented with methods that helped overcome the constraints of the rational mind and released the imagination. By avoiding closed or isolated shapes, Masson portrays the transformative action of metamorphosis and balances turbulence with formal beauty.
Signed and dated lower left: "Andre Masson 1941"
T. Catesby Jones Collection
"Selections from the T. Catesby Jones Collection," Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, November 15 - December 29, 1974

Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Ashland, VA, April 25 - May 9, 1957

Lynchburg Art Center, March 26 - April 16, 1954

Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, VA May 1953

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, January 5 – February 3, 1953

Hollins College, Roanoke, VA, December 5 - 22, 1952

Buchholz Gallery, New York, 1942
©artist or artist’s estate

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