André Masson
The Metaphysical Wall
1939
Scroll
André Masson
The Metaphysical Wall
1939
Physical Qualities
Watercolor with pen and black ink over traces of graphite on paper, Sheet: 474 × 614 mm. (18 11/16 × 24 3/16 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Saidie A. May
Object Number
1951.331
In the otherworldly watercolor The Metaphysical Wall, 1940, Masson revisits imagery he had explored two years earlier in a sketch that he later published in the prologue of his influential book Anatomy of My Universe, (New York, Curt Valentin, 1943) (see below). Tall male and female totemic figures flank a wall composed of colorful striations set on a plane within a larger horizontally striped universe. The figures stand in front of the wall and are mirrored in it as well. A crystalline form at bottom left encloses a skeletal being that is contrasted with a transparent ovoid fetus to its right that holds a living figure. These representations of life and death appear to emanate from a structure one writer has called the “temple of a mother goddess,” more clearly identifiable in the earlier drawing.
Masson created this work in a period of crisis, as Germany invaded France, and he and his Jewish wife and family moved from place to place, eventually reaching Marseilles and escaping to America, with the help of BMA patron Saidie Adler May. At war’s end, Masson sent Saidie May The Metaphysical Wall in gratitude for her paying for his return passage to France.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by bequest, 1951; Saidie A. May, Baltimore; purchased from the artist
Katy Rothkopf, BMA, "The Renoir Returns," March 30 - July 20, 2014.
Vancouver Art Museum, "Surrealism: The Colour of my Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art," May 28 - September 25, 2011.
Darsie Alexander, BMA, "Mechanical Form/Mechanical Vision," 12 December 2001 - 7 April 2002.
BMA, "BMA Collects: Surrealist Drawings," 27 February - 29 April, 1990.
Jay Fisher, BMA, "Master Drawings by French Artists in the Museum's Collection," 9 May - 23 July, 1989.
Museum of Modern Art, "André Masson," 2 June 1976 - ?, p. 156 illus.; travelled to Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Musee National d'Art Modern, Paris(?).
Lerner-Heller Gallery, NY, "André Masson: Second Surrealist Period 1937-43," 22 April - 24 May 1975, cat. no. 12.
BMA, "Saidie A. May Collection," 6 September - 22 November 1972, cat. p. 64.
Baltimore City Schools Tour, Fall and Spring 1972-73.
Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, Ohio, BMA loan exh., 9 November - 4 December 1967.
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, "Selections from the May Collection," 27 September - 31 October 1957.
BMA, "Saidie A. May Collection of Modern Paintings and Sculpture," March 1950, cat. no. 71.
Vancouver Art Museum, "Surrealism: The Colour of my Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art," May 28 - September 25, 2011.
Darsie Alexander, BMA, "Mechanical Form/Mechanical Vision," 12 December 2001 - 7 April 2002.
BMA, "BMA Collects: Surrealist Drawings," 27 February - 29 April, 1990.
Jay Fisher, BMA, "Master Drawings by French Artists in the Museum's Collection," 9 May - 23 July, 1989.
Museum of Modern Art, "André Masson," 2 June 1976 - ?, p. 156 illus.; travelled to Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Musee National d'Art Modern, Paris(?).
Lerner-Heller Gallery, NY, "André Masson: Second Surrealist Period 1937-43," 22 April - 24 May 1975, cat. no. 12.
BMA, "Saidie A. May Collection," 6 September - 22 November 1972, cat. p. 64.
Baltimore City Schools Tour, Fall and Spring 1972-73.
Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, Ohio, BMA loan exh., 9 November - 4 December 1967.
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, "Selections from the May Collection," 27 September - 31 October 1957.
BMA, "Saidie A. May Collection of Modern Paintings and Sculpture," March 1950, cat. no. 71.
Hilton Kramer, "Masson Remains an Artist Who is Not Quite There," New York Times, 13 June 1976, p. ?, illus.
Greeley, Robin Adele, Samantha Kavky, Oliver Shell, and Oliver Tostmann. "Monsters & Myths: Surrealism and War in the 1930s and 1940s." New York, NY: Rizzoli Electa in association with The Baltimore Museum of Art and Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 2018, ill.
Inscribed: lower right in black ink: "andré masson / 1940-"
