Masson, Andre

(1/4/1896 Balagny-10/28/1987 Paris) (France)

   Painter, lithographer, etcher, engraver, and illustrator. Studied at the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts and L'ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Brussels. A major figure among the Surrealists, he produced a significant number of erotic works. Reproductions: [Abstract image of lovemaking], from Mythologie Sexuelle; 1973; lithograph; Smith, 1980: pp. 184-185 . [Abstracted penis and vagina]; lithograph; Kronhasuen, 1968: p. 115 . [Abstracted sexual scenes] from Erotic Drawings; 1971; lithograph; Dopp, 2004: pp. 222, 223, 224, 225 [C]. Age of gold; watercolor; Smith, 1974: p. 107 [C]. Cascade; 1938; ink; Neret 1993: p. 158 [B]. Dancer; watercolor; Smith, 1980: p. 183 [C]. [Dancing girl]; watercolor; Kronhasuen, 1968: p. 64 [C] / Philips, 1979: p. 331 [B]. Eros hotel; etching; Kronhausen, 1970c: p. 52 [B]. [Erotic drawing]; 1937; Neret, 1994: p. 652 [B]. Erotic land; 1939; India ink; Neret, 1994: p. 651 [B] / Smith, 1974: p. 120 [B] / Erotic drawings, 2004: p. 191 [B]. Erotic scene [orgy], illus. for Story of the eye by Bataille; 1928; lithograph; Erotic drawings, 2004: p. 183 [C]. Erotic terrain; 1939; pen; Neret 1993: p. 62 [B]. [Group sex scene]; from The Story of the eye by Bataille; 1928; lithograph; Dopp, 2004: p. 221 [C] / Thomas, 2008: fig. 814 [C]. [Heads kissing]; 1956; drawing; Kronhausen, 1970c: p. 53 [B]. Illustration to the Golden Ass; Kronhasuen, 1968: p. 114 [B]. Illustration for Le Miroir de la Tauromachie by Leiris; 1938; Wallace 2007: p. 198 [C]. La danse; Neret, 2000: p. 59 [C]. Le mort ["The dead"] portfolio; 1964; [9] etchings; Weiermair, 1995: pp. 228-231 [C]. [Lovers]; ink drawing; Kronhasuen, 1968: p. 114 [B]. [Lovers in coitus]; ink drawing; Kronhasuen, 1968: p. 115 [B]. Metamorphosis of Gradiva; 1939; Webb, 1975: p. 254 [B]. [Orgy]; ink; Kronhausen, 1970c: p. 51 [B]. [Orgy of females]; watercolor; Kronhausen, 1970c: p. 50 [B]. [Sexual landscape]; ink; Kronhausen, 1970c: p. 50 [B]. [Surrealistic image of woman and piano]; Kronhasuen, 1968: p. 87 [C]. Title page, Histoire de l'Oeil by George Bataille; 1941; Neret, 2000: p. 7 [B] / Kearney, 1982: p. 177 [B]. Title page, The story of the eye by Bataille; 1928; lithograph. Dopp, 2004: p. 218 [C]. Untitled [abstracted sexual forms]; ink; Neret, 1993: p. 128 [B]. Untitled erotic scene; 1971; Thomas, 2008: figs. 970-975 [C]. Untitled, illus. For Story of the eye by Bataille; 1928; Erotic drawings, 2004: p. 175 [B] / Wallace 2007: p. 199 [C]. Untitled drawing : erotic scene, illus. From portfolio Dessins erotiques; 1971; lithograph; Erotic drawings, 2004: pp. 225, 227, 229, 231, 233, 235 [C]. The visit; ink and pencil; Smith, 1974: p. 121 [B]. [Woman copulating with a donkey]; 1938; Neret, 1994: p. 653 [B].

   [b]Source: "Andre Masson," in Paris Eros by H-J Dopp (New York: Parkstone Press, 2004), pp. 218-225, ill.; Benezit, vol. 9: pp. 446-450; James Burr, "Labyrinthine sexuality," Apollo 126, 307 (September 1987): p. 220; DoA vol. 20: pp. 590-592; Jean-Jacques Fernier, Les yeux les plus secrets: Gustave Courbet, la naissance du monde, 1866; Andre Masson, 56dessins erotiques de 1921 a 1970; Le roman de Mathilde, corresepondance avec Courbet 1873 (Ornans: Musee Gustave Courbet, 1991), 147 p., ill.; Andre Masson, Dessins erotiques (Paris: Tchou, 1971), 15 p., ill.; Ghislain Uhry, Songe erotique (Paris: Espace Carole Brimaud, 2002), 79 p., ill. (some col.); Vollmer III 1956: p. 343.