Star, Winged Being, Fish
Andre Masson
Oil, sand and glue on canvas
Masson wrote excitedly to his friend and art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler about some new sand paintings he had just begun on 15 July 1955:
I am throwing sandy glue [‘colle ensablé’] onto stretched canvases. I like the result of this research, of this extreme spontaneity ... if in the past I threw sand onto glued surfaces, now it’s the glue that I throw onto the support, having only rhythm and the fire of inspiration as my starting point ... it’s always the same thing that I want, that is, to reveal movement, the blossoming, or the birth of things (this time it’s the act of creation in a pure state).’ (Quoted in Donation Louise and Michel Leiris, 1984, p.144.)