André Masson : Female Bodies, Celestial Bodies

The female form as an analogy for creation and the wild forces of nature appears early on in the works of Surrealist founding member André Masson. Starting from 1924, André Masson is at the frontier of Cubism and Surrealism : his Cubist compositions start to acquire a more metaphysical dimension, under the impulsion of the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico and his readings of the writings of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. His other great reference is Greek philosopher Heraclitus, and his vision of nature as eternal flux.

The female figure in works such as "Femme tenant un oiseau" perfectly exemplifies these precepts : the line is diaphanous and fluid, despite the Cubist geometrization of the space. It opens itself to the surrounding nature, an echo to the bird in flight. Starting with the American period, Masson will become increasingly facinated with the celestial phenomenon that he can observe in the great American wilderness. Stars become an increasingly common motif in his work, the cosmic undertones resonating with the human figures.

In the 1950s, with Masson's fascination with Zen philosophy and calligraphy, the line becomes more and more abstract. In "Enfantement" from 1947, the childbirth becomes a metaphor for creation on a cosmic scale - shooting stars surround a female nude. This period of artistic fecondity enables Masson to get back to the mythical elan of his works from the 1920s and 1930s. For Michel Leiris, art theorist, the five-point star that can be drawn with a continuous line symbolises the endless knot - the ever-repeating cycle of birth and death.

In the works of André Masson, the human body, more than flesh, becomes a theater of cosmic dimensions, open to nature and its infinite variations and metamorphosis. In his 1938-1939 "Mythologies" series, it surges from the ground, monumental. And in his latter work, it becomes open to the sky itself.