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Artist or Maker: André Masson (1896-1987)

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Description: Combat d'un oiseau et d'un poisson
signed 'André Masson' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
39 3/8 x 25 3/4 in. (100 x 65.5 cm.)
Painted in 1927

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Provenance: Galerie Simon, Paris (no. 10038, photo no. 10726).
Richard L. Feigen Gallery, Chicago & New York (no. 715-F).
A gift from the above in 1963 to the present owner.

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Exhibited: Paris, Galerie Simon, April 1929.
Chicago, Richard Feigen Gallery, April - May 1961.
Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, Surrealim, October - November 1972.
Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Surrealism, no. 42.
Carracas, Museo de Bellas Artes.

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Published: M. Leiris & G. Limbour, André Masson and his Universe, Geneva, Paris & London, 1947, p. 157 (illustrated).

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Notes: PROPERTY FROM THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK SOLD TO BENEFIT THE ACQUISITIONS FUND

This work is sold with a photo-certificate from the Comité André Masson, dated Paris le 12 Décembre 2005.

Painted in 1927, Combat d'un oiseau et d'un poisson shows the elemental struggle between two creatures, two forces of nature, two aspects of Masson's own personality. The battles of the fish, birds and massacres showing humans all pointed to a Surreal fascination with violence as a life force. Here, the idea that the fish and the bird are both manifestations of human nature is made more specific by the overall appearance of Combat d'un oiseau et d'un poisson, whose lines appear to delineate the figure of a man.

Towards the end of 1926 and into the beginning of 1927, Masson had finally discovered a means of introducing automatism into his oils on canvas. The original revelation had been in his 'sand paintings', where the forms that glue created, with sand sticking to the surface of the picture, were combined with the free application of paint from the tube. Combat d'un oiseau et d'un poisson greatly resembles these sand paintings, with the lines singing out against the pale background. In tiny explosions of violence, the lines are disrupted by the features of the bird and the fish, by a splash of blood and a dash of water, and by the jutting angularity of the bloodied claw. In this way, Masson has captured this timeless struggle between creatures from an unwritten and highly personal mythology. This is a fundamental image of the violence of life, summoned into form from the subconscious through the automatic process: '(a) The first condition was to make a clean slate. The mind freed from all apparent ties. Entry into a state bordering on trance. (b) Surrender to the interior tumult. (c) Speed of writing' (Masson, quoted in W. Rubin & C. Lanchner, André Masson, exh. cat., New York, 1976, p. 107). In this way, painting faster than he could think, Masson channels the fundamental powers of life, creating a shifting web of imprecise yet evocative meaning and violence.

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.