Andre Masson, French (1896-1987) painter sculptor, illustrator, designer and writer & graphic artist. After studying painting in Brussels and Paris, He joined the Surrealist movement in 1924 and became the leading practitioner of automatism. In the late 1920s and ’30s he produced turbulent images of violence, psychic pain, eroticism and physical metamorphosis, He lived in Spain (1934-36) and later the U.S. (1941-45), where he became an important link between Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.
Masson moved to Paris and studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts 1912-14. Served in the French Army 1914-19, and was gravely wounded. Lived 1919-22 in the South of France, then returned to Paris where he met Gris, Derain, and later Miró and Breton. First one-man exhibition at the Galerie Simon, Paris, 1923. Participated from 1924-9 in the Surrealist movement. Lived 1934-6 in Spain; paintings of bullfights, Spanish myths, etc. Took refuge 1941-5 in the USA, where he lived at New Preston, Connecticut, and made works inspired by the elemental forces of nature. Returned to France in 1945 and settled in 1947 at Aix-en-Provence. Painted landscape themes such as mountains and waterfalls for several years, followed by some almost completely abstract pictures. His works also include sets and costumes for the theatre, book illustrations and a number of small sculptures