André Masson (1896-1987) - Corrida

Signed 'André Masson.' (lower left) - oil on canvas - 33 1/8 x 35 3/8 in. (84.2 x 90 cm.) - Painted in 1937 - Estimate: £300,000-500,000

Provenance: Galerie Simon, Paris, by whom acquired from the artist.
Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris (no. 13735).
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1999.

Exhibited: Stockholm, Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, 1959.
Dortmund, Museum am Ostwall, June - August 1965.
Amiens, Maison des Jeunes et de la Culture, 1971.
Aix en Provence, Musée Granet, Exposition André Masson, Oeuvres de 1921 à 1975, July - October 1975 no. 14.
Dakar, Senegal, Ministère de la culture, 1979 - 1980.
Céret, Musée d'art moderne, July - September 1981.
Florence, Orsanmichele, André Masson: opere dal 1920 al 1970, April - June 1981 (illustrated).
Tokyo, AD Bank, Exposition: Le Minotaure, 1982 (illustrated).
Nîmes, Musée des Beaux Arts, Exposition André Masson, July - October 1985 (illustrated p. 173).
Barcelona, Fundació Caixa de Pensions, 1985 (illustrated).
Albi, Musée Toulouse Lautrec, June - September 1988.
Saragossa, Museo Camón Aznar, André Masson en España, 1933-1943: Pinturas, gouaches, acuarelas, pasteles, dibujos, February - September 1992 (illustrated p. 42); this exhibition later travelled to Bilbao, Museo Bellas Artes, October - November 1992.
Mallorca, Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, February - March 1993.
Paris, Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Les années 30 en Europe, February - May 1997 (illustrated p. 400).

Notes: Painted in 1937, Corrida dates from the end of Masson's Spanish period, and combines his fascination with bullfights with his anxiety at the Civil War that was now tearing apart the nation, which, for several years, had been his home. By the time Corrida was painted, Masson had moved back to his native France; however, Spanish themes continued to play a large part in his work, especially images of the corrida.
In this picture, the violence of the Civil War is evident in the image of the gored horse, which is still being attacked by the rampaging bull, a terrifying creature that Masson has deliberately flecked with red, especially in the eyes, bringing a sense of madness, anger and blood to the scene. This is accentuated by the red of the cloaks and clothes of the various figures which, along with the flashes of yellow, also recall the colours of the Spanish flag. These themes are emphasised by the skull-like face of one of the toreros. Masson's own experiences of conflict in the First World War, in which he had been severely wounded, meant that he reacted with real and profound anxiety to the Civil War that was raging through Spain, a country that had long fascinated him. Indeed, on his return to France, he had had to move to the countryside rather than the city in part because of his increasingly nervous state.

Spanish culture had entranced Masson for many reasons, not least the presence of so much ritual in life. Nowhere is this more clear than in the corrida, as he himself attested: 'The visual aspect, the spectacle... is magnificent; when man and beast seem wedded. There are sublime moments' (A. Masson, quoted in W. Rubin & C. Lanchner, André Masson, exh.cat., New York, 1976, p. 142). In this sense, Corrida ties into another of Masson's-- and Surrealism's-- favourite themes, that of the Minotaur. In the union of man and beast, in the presence of the bull, an unhinged, anger-fuelled monster, a dark aspect of our own self is revealed. Masson was intrigued by mythology, by the elemental tales that echo down through the millennia from time immemorial and which can be considered to contain clues as to some of the fundamental truths of human nature and existence, and nowhere is this more evident than in the almost gladiatorial arena of the bullfight. For Masson, even the death of the horse had an almost religious, mystical, ritualistic aspect: 'The horse appears as a sacred animal. It takes the place of the Crucified' (A. Masson, quoted ibid. p. 142). In this light, the scene in Corrida can be seen to tap into Masson's anxieties at the current situation in Spain, as well as into some of the perennial themes that were such a source of fascination for him.

Christie's. The Art of the Surreal. 4 February 2008, 6:00 pm. 8 King Street, St James's, L