Removal 1932

Andre Masson made this painting, Removal, in no specific year. It’s hard to look at it without thinking about process. There’s something so visceral about the way the forms tangle and unfurl. The colors feel like they’ve been stirred together in a cauldron, with earthy yellows and greens melting into bruised blues and purples. Take a look at the upper left corner, where a dark shape hovers like a specter. The paint is applied so thickly there, almost sculptural, as if Masson was wrestling with the image, trying to exorcise some hidden demon. And yet, despite the chaos, there’s a strange kind of harmony at play. It reminds me a little of Picasso, but with a wilder, more untamed energy. Ultimately, this painting resists any easy explanation, inviting us to embrace ambiguity and find our own meaning within its swirling depths.