Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
Saidenberg Gallery, New York
Ira Haupt, New York (and sold: Parke-Bernet, New York, January 13, 1965, lot 8)
Agora Gallery, New York
Sale: Sotheby's, London, November 29, 1989, lot 225
Galería Theo, Madrid
Private Collection, Sweden( and sold: Sotheby's, London, December 4, 1991, lot 196)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

New York, Saidenberg Gallery, André Masson—Recent Works and Earlier Paintings, 1958, no. 21
Dusseldorf, Städtische Kunsthalle, Ausstellung Surrealität—Bildrealität, 1974-75

The work is in excellent condition. The canvas is not lined. There is some minor rubbing to the extreme upper left and right edges and some pindot losses at the extreme upper left corner. Otherwise, fine. Under UV light: there is no apparent signs of inpainting.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Between 1938 and 1947, an unprecedented cultural transference took hold when the greater part of the European Surrealist group were transplanted in New York. Arriving in the United States in 1941, André Masson, along with many members of the Surrealist group, escaped from Vichy France with help from the Emergency Rescue Committee run by the American Varian Fry. While he spent the wartime years and beyond in Roxbury, Connecticut, near Alexander Calder, Masson frequently exhibited in New York and interacted with his Surrealist colleagues as well as members from the burgeoning New York School at Stanley William Hayter’s Atelier 17. Masson’s exile ultimately proved fruitful in terms of the fecundity and maturity of his artistic output, executing what are considered his finest works at this integral period during and shortly after the war, Le Migrateur (1957) notwithstanding.

Painted in New York in 1957, this visually engrossing canvas is richly colored and textured. A menacing figure moves through the center of the canvas, gaining stamina through cosmic areas of energy. Bifurcated spaces of saturated, contrasting jewel tones create a sense of anxiety as pockets of luminosity pull the viewer inward as we attempt to understand the reticent power of this ove🐓rwhelming conceptual creation. We see Masson’s tendency towards automatism, particularly in the swirling purple and blue planetary masses and the hieroglyphic-like hard-edged strokes surrounding the figure.

While young New York artists working contemporaneously to Masson were staying afloat largely through their involvement with the Works Progress Administration and begrudgingly viewed the Surrealists in exile as the traditional aristocracy of the art world, automatic drawing as seen in the present work ultimately proved influential upon their practices. Pollock’s mature works present undeniable influence from Masson who dripped wax in a comparable fashion in Le Migrateur. Masson’s influential legacy extends past de Kooning and Gottlieb, his swirling hand foreboding Cy Twombly’s calligraphic and mythological tableaux. The aggressive grandiosity and combined graffiti-like primitivism of Le Migrateur so clearly anticipates Twombly’s oeuvre, as we🐷ll as the groundbreaking work of American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat almost thirty years later.