André Masson, French 1896-1987- Couverture d'un programme pour Le Domaine Musical, 1972; Chinese ink, signed with monogram lower right, 31.5x30cm (ARR) Provenance: Daussy-De Ricqles, Paris, 20 November 1991 lot 56; Christies, London, 5 February 2016, lot 46, where purchased by the present owner. Note: This lot is accompanied with a certificate of authenticity from the comité André Masson. André Masson was a significant French artist of the 20th century, and was a particularly important figure in the development of Surrealism. Masson was closely associated with a number of prominent contemporaries, including Joan Miró, Jean Dubuffet, and Georges Malkine, whose influence on one another’s work is immediately evident. Masson’s influence was not limited to Europe, but extended internationally, shaping the development of American Abstract Expressionist art, particularly through the impact of Masson’s work on figures such as Jackson Pollock. Masson was a prominent practitioner of automatic drawing, through which the act of mark-making itself served to express the artist’s subconscious thoughts and desires. The present work illustrates this approach, through the abstract ink line-drawings which define much of Masson’s output.     Significant solo exhibitions of Masson’s works have been held in a number of major museums across the world, including in the Baltimore Museum of Art (where his first retrospective was held in 1941), the Akademie der Künste, Berlin; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; MoMA, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and the Hayward Gallery, London.Please refer to department for condition report