.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
We are thankful to Mrs Guite-Masson and the Comité Masson for their assistance in cataloguing the present lot.
Painted between 1933 and 1939, Vue emblématique de Tolède is one of the greatest of Masson's explicitly figurative paintings, one that charts an intriguing and turbulent period both in the artist's life and in the world around him. By the time the painting was completed in 1939, Masson had explored various artistic avenues, and Vue emblématique de Tolède appears to pay testimony to many of them, combining areas that have the unmistakeably organic feel of his automatic images with an openly figurative composition, combining elements from mythology, current events and his own personal inner life. In this way, the picture charts one of the most formative periods of Masson's life, as well as serving as a searing document of its own times.
Writing about Masson's painting in 1939, the year that Vue emblématique de Tolède was completed, André Breton stated that for art, 'essentially, the problem is no longer that of knowing whether a picture can 'hold its own' in, for instance, a cornfield, but rather whether it can hold its own beside a daily newspaper, which is a jungle whether open or closed' (A. Breton, Surrealism and Painting, trans. S. Watson Taylor, London, 1972, p. 151). The papers were filled with news from the Spanish Civil War and with the growing omens of a greater war. Masson's art was rare in its age as its own tormented energy was more than a match for the newspapers. Somehow the same spirit that was tearing the world apart was tearing Masson himself apart, fuelling his art and bringing frenzied visions to life.
Vue emblématique de Tolède is a Surreal barometer of the violent age that created it. A veteran of the First World War, Masson was particularly sensitive to the tension around him, and this had increased with the Civil War that had ravaged Spain in the late 1930s. Masson himself had fallen in love with Spain while travelling there in 1934, and this relationship was to last some time. He settled in June 1934 in Tossa de Mar. Spain to some extent had rehabilitated him after a deeply troubled period during the early 1930s when his life and his art appeared to reach a crisis point. He had moved to the seclusion of St.-Jean-de-Grasse following his divorce from his wife and his break with the Surrealists. In Spain, he had found great solace, and so his anxiety at the Civil War that tore the country apart was all the greater and came to dominate many of his paintings of the period. In Vue emblématique de Tolède, this is explicit in the location of the view as Toledo.
In a sense, Vue emblématique de Tolède is Masson's equivalent to Picasso's Guernica, fusing national identity, mythology and current events. Masson's love of Spanish culture is reflected in the fact that the cityscape is derived in part from El Greco's famous, almost expressionistic view of the city. Indeed, the looming clouds in that painting appear to have provoked the atmosphere in Masson's own reprisal. However, as well as culture, the identification of the city as Toledo has harsh historical overtones. The infamous 1936 siege of Toledo which lasted several months and became one of the main focuses of the early stages of the Spanish Civil War must have greatly informed the painting. Indeed, Toledo was one of the first true arenas of the whole Civil War in mainland Spain. In the siege of the Alcázar, Nationalist troops had retreated with hundreds of hostages and were besieged by Republican forces. However, Franco himself (possibly portrayed in the present work in the guise of the tiger) postponed his advance on Madrid in order to relieve the siege. Some of the last resistance forces, who were now themselves besieged, set fire to their stronghold and died in the flames rather than become prisoners to the Nationalist forces. In Vue emblématique de Tolède, the presence of flames within the composition reflects not just the fact that Spain itself was alight, but must also reflect this grisly episode. Perhaps it is the weight of this historical moment as well as that of the greater conflict that bows the shoulders of the vast, god-like figure looming over the scene.
Spanish identity is most explicitly invoked maybe not in Vue emblématique de Tolède's cityscape, but possibly rather in the flayed corpse of the bull hanging above it. The bull and the corrida are inextricably linked to Spain and Spanish identity. In many of his paintings mourning the Civil War there, he used the bullfight as a rousing theme. Its presence here, not as a lively bull fighting nobly but as an eviscerated corpse, hangs heavy over Toledo. Regardless of the status of the bull, though, the corrida and even the almost inevitable death it involved represented something musical and beautiful to Masson, a dance of art within life: 'The visual aspect, the spectacle... is magnificent; when man and beast seem wedded. There are sublime moments' (Masson, quoted in W. Rubin & C. Lanchner, exh. cat., André Masson, New York, 1976, p. 142). In this, the bull seen in Guernica is a manifestation of the same impulse and symbolism that Masson is exploring and grieving for in the flayed carcass in Vue emblématique de Tolède.
To the Surrealist in him, the presence of ritualised death in the arena at the corrida held strong ramifications. Masson was fascinated by this, and in his mind it linked easily with his interest in the myth of the Minotaur. Like Freud, the Surrealists saw ancient myths as clues to eternal truths about life and human nature. The Minotaur was therefore a potent symbol of violence, of the beast within, for the artists like Masson who had survived the Great War. It became an explicit mascot for the Surrealists with the publication of Minotaure, a title that was suggested by Masson and his friend the writer Georges Bataille. Although Masson's interest in Spain had briefly eclipsed his interest in myths, in Vue emblématique de Tolède the two strands have become inextricably linked.
In Vue emblématique de Tolède, the view of the city itself appears Labyrinth-like, adding another dimension to the picture and to its relationship with the ancient myth of the Minotaur. In Masson's eyes, the Labyrinth is a symbol for life. It 'has an entrance but no exit. The exit is Death. It is the Minotaur. It begins with Ariadne with her knees half parted. Her vagina serves as an entrance; you feel that in its midst is an evident place of battle, and, at the very end, the exit is blocked by the Minotaur. In the Greek theme the Minotaur is killed, in mine he is the victor. He kills whoever comes inside' (Masson, quoted in C. Lanchner, op. cit., p. 148).
The Labyrinth was a perfect symbol not only of life, but also of the entire creative process. Ariadne's thread, making sense of an impossible maze, recalls the automatism that Masson had favoured and to a great degree pioneered. From the random forms that he would create in his automatic pictures, a solution or a vision would lurch at some point into focus: from chaos, meaning would emerge and the picture would form. In Vue emblématique de Tolède, there are several areas which have the organic appearance showing Masson's use of automatism even within the larger, more formal and composed scheme. This combination of different artistic techniques reflects a more general movement in Masson's art during the late 1930s. This was a period during which he revisited many of the techniques and media of his earlier career. In Vue emblématique de Tolède these techniques meet on a single canvas. As well as the organic forms of his automatism, there is a more overtly figurative and pre-planned composition at work. In the early 1930s in St.-Jean-de-Grasse, Masson had begun to experiment with new forms of representation, not least with a direct figuration that does not rely in the same way on automatism. Instead, Masson turned to his dreams and to a world of associations for more and more of his subject matter. Both through figuration and automatism, this painting is a product of the world and the age in which Masson was painting. In Vue emblématique de Tolède, he combines this figurative manner, the figurative translation of dreams and views to the canvas, with the chance-driven automatism, allowing him a more intense, direct means of emblazoning his emotions, fears and concerns in a painting.
Painted between 1933 and 1939, Vue emblématique de Tolède is one of the greatest of Masson's explicitly figurative paintings, one that charts an intriguing and turbulent period both in the artist's life and in the world around him. By the time the painting was completed in 1939, Masson had explored various artistic avenues, and Vue emblématique de Tolède appears to pay testimony to many of them, combining areas that have the unmistakeably organic feel of his automatic images with an openly figurative composition, combining elements from mythology, current events and his own personal inner life. In this way, the picture charts one of the most formative periods of Masson's life, as well as serving as a searing document of its own times.
Writing about Masson's painting in 1939, the year that Vue emblématique de Tolède was completed, André Breton stated that for art, 'essentially, the problem is no longer that of knowing whether a picture can 'hold its own' in, for instance, a cornfield, but rather whether it can hold its own beside a daily newspaper, which is a jungle whether open or closed' (A. Breton, Surrealism and Painting, trans. S. Watson Taylor, London, 1972, p. 151). The papers were filled with news from the Spanish Civil War and with the growing omens of a greater war. Masson's art was rare in its age as its own tormented energy was more than a match for the newspapers. Somehow the same spirit that was tearing the world apart was tearing Masson himself apart, fuelling his art and bringing frenzied visions to life.
Vue emblématique de Tolède is a Surreal barometer of the violent age that created it. A veteran of the First World War, Masson was particularly sensitive to the tension around him, and this had increased with the Civil War that had ravaged Spain in the late 1930s. Masson himself had fallen in love with Spain while travelling there in 1934, and this relationship was to last some time. He settled in June 1934 in Tossa de Mar. Spain to some extent had rehabilitated him after a deeply troubled period during the early 1930s when his life and his art appeared to reach a crisis point. He had moved to the seclusion of St.-Jean-de-Grasse following his divorce from his wife and his break with the Surrealists. In Spain, he had found great solace, and so his anxiety at the Civil War that tore the country apart was all the greater and came to dominate many of his paintings of the period. In Vue emblématique de Tolède, this is explicit in the location of the view as Toledo.
In a sense, Vue emblématique de Tolède is Masson's equivalent to Picasso's Guernica, fusing national identity, mythology and current events. Masson's love of Spanish culture is reflected in the fact that the cityscape is derived in part from El Greco's famous, almost expressionistic view of the city. Indeed, the looming clouds in that painting appear to have provoked the atmosphere in Masson's own reprisal. However, as well as culture, the identification of the city as Toledo has harsh historical overtones. The infamous 1936 siege of Toledo which lasted several months and became one of the main focuses of the early stages of the Spanish Civil War must have greatly informed the painting. Indeed, Toledo was one of the first true arenas of the whole Civil War in mainland Spain. In the siege of the Alcázar, Nationalist troops had retreated with hundreds of hostages and were besieged by Republican forces. However, Franco himself (possibly portrayed in the present work in the guise of the tiger) postponed his advance on Madrid in order to relieve the siege. Some of the last resistance forces, who were now themselves besieged, set fire to their stronghold and died in the flames rather than become prisoners to the Nationalist forces. In Vue emblématique de Tolède, the presence of flames within the composition reflects not just the fact that Spain itself was alight, but must also reflect this grisly episode. Perhaps it is the weight of this historical moment as well as that of the greater conflict that bows the shoulders of the vast, god-like figure looming over the scene.
Spanish identity is most explicitly invoked maybe not in Vue emblématique de Tolède's cityscape, but possibly rather in the flayed corpse of the bull hanging above it. The bull and the corrida are inextricably linked to Spain and Spanish identity. In many of his paintings mourning the Civil War there, he used the bullfight as a rousing theme. Its presence here, not as a lively bull fighting nobly but as an eviscerated corpse, hangs heavy over Toledo. Regardless of the status of the bull, though, the corrida and even the almost inevitable death it involved represented something musical and beautiful to Masson, a dance of art within life: 'The visual aspect, the spectacle... is magnificent; when man and beast seem wedded. There are sublime moments' (Masson, quoted in W. Rubin & C. Lanchner, exh. cat., André Masson, New York, 1976, p. 142). In this, the bull seen in Guernica is a manifestation of the same impulse and symbolism that Masson is exploring and grieving for in the flayed carcass in Vue emblématique de Tolède.
To the Surrealist in him, the presence of ritualised death in the arena at the corrida held strong ramifications. Masson was fascinated by this, and in his mind it linked easily with his interest in the myth of the Minotaur. Like Freud, the Surrealists saw ancient myths as clues to eternal truths about life and human nature. The Minotaur was therefore a potent symbol of violence, of the beast within, for the artists like Masson who had survived the Great War. It became an explicit mascot for the Surrealists with the publication of Minotaure, a title that was suggested by Masson and his friend the writer Georges Bataille. Although Masson's interest in Spain had briefly eclipsed his interest in myths, in Vue emblématique de Tolède the two strands have become inextricably linked.
In Vue emblématique de Tolède, the view of the city itself appears Labyrinth-like, adding another dimension to the picture and to its relationship with the ancient myth of the Minotaur. In Masson's eyes, the Labyrinth is a symbol for life. It 'has an entrance but no exit. The exit is Death. It is the Minotaur. It begins with Ariadne with her knees half parted. Her vagina serves as an entrance; you feel that in its midst is an evident place of battle, and, at the very end, the exit is blocked by the Minotaur. In the Greek theme the Minotaur is killed, in mine he is the victor. He kills whoever comes inside' (Masson, quoted in C. Lanchner, op. cit., p. 148).
The Labyrinth was a perfect symbol not only of life, but also of the entire creative process. Ariadne's thread, making sense of an impossible maze, recalls the automatism that Masson had favoured and to a great degree pioneered. From the random forms that he would create in his automatic pictures, a solution or a vision would lurch at some point into focus: from chaos, meaning would emerge and the picture would form. In Vue emblématique de Tolède, there are several areas which have the organic appearance showing Masson's use of automatism even within the larger, more formal and composed scheme. This combination of different artistic techniques reflects a more general movement in Masson's art during the late 1930s. This was a period during which he revisited many of the techniques and media of his earlier career. In Vue emblématique de Tolède these techniques meet on a single canvas. As well as the organic forms of his automatism, there is a more overtly figurative and pre-planned composition at work. In the early 1930s in St.-Jean-de-Grasse, Masson had begun to experiment with new forms of representation, not least with a direct figuration that does not rely in the same way on automatism. Instead, Masson turned to his dreams and to a world of associations for more and more of his subject matter. Both through figuration and automatism, this painting is a product of the world and the age in which Masson was painting. In Vue emblématique de Tolède, he combines this figurative manner, the figurative translation of dreams and views to the canvas, with the chance-driven automatism, allowing him a more intense, direct means of emblazoning his emotions, fears and concerns in a painting.