This richly documented book examines the attempts of the French Surrealist artist Andr� Masson (1896-1987) to define "self” in his art in the period between the early 1920s and 1940, the most fruitful period of classic Surrealism, culminating in the emergence of existentialism. Through a close reading of Masson’s paintings, drawings, and writings, Clark Poling explores the ways in which the artist figured the self--as fragmented, dissolved, merged with other selves and with the natural environment, and, ultimately, reconstituted and consolidated. Masson’s work, Poling argues, reveals his involvement with modern conceptions of the self that he absorbed from Nietzsche and the Surrealist writers, as well as from other sources in philosophy, psychology, psychoanalysis and ethnography. He traces Masson’s articulation of these ideas in paintings and graphic works, using his correspondence from the Surrealist period and his many subsequent writings as supporting evidence.

Long unavailable in English, Surrealism and Painting remains one of the masterworks of twentieth-century art criticism."--BOOK JACKET.

"Andre Masson (1896-1987) was one of the major early French Surrealist painters. A close friend of Andre Breton, Joan Miro, and Max Ernst, he joined the Surrealist movement in the early 20s, then disassociated with it in the early 30s, focusing instead on the human condition - the fundamental impulses of love and hatred - and reacting to the Spanish Civil War. In the early 40s, Masson moved to America and became interested in mythical imagery. Many of his paintings from this period show a focus on African American and Native American myths, and the style of his expression and brushwork influenced many young American painters." "This survey presents the full range of Masson's work, from his Surrealist period to the later, more mythical subjects. Dawn Ades's text provides an authoritative and thoughtful introduction to the ideas behind Masson's work."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Quilty as Charged is not a history or how-to-guide; it is a collection of many small stories, including Gillespie's, stitched together in the spirit of quilting, separate scraps made into a cohesive cloth.