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The Industrial Beast (La Bête industrielle), Plate IX from “Bestiary (Bestiaire)”

André Masson

Artwork Details

The Industrial Beast (La Bête industrielle), Plate IX from “Bestiary (Bestiaire)”
1945
André Masson
lithograph on paper
16 in x 12 in (40.64 cm x 30.48 cm);16 in x 12 in (40.64 cm x 30.48 cm);22 1/8 in x 18 1/8 in (56.2 cm x 46.04 cm)
Museum Purchase
1956/1.43

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Description

This is one of twelve lithographs that comprise the Masson’s antiwar portfolio Bestiaire. From exile in Connecticut, the artist composed powerful images accompanied by crisp captions that castigate the bestiality to which World War II reduced humankind and criticize social ills pervading Western civilization. Plate IX is a horrific nightmarish scene in which a threatening form, suggesting the annihilating capacity of industry, looms over skulls.
Masson’s friend Georges Duthuit wrote the introduction; the lithographs were pulled by master printer George Miller. The book was published by Masson’s dealer Curt Valentin in New York.
Label copy from exhibition "Dreamscapes: The Surrealist Impulse," August 22 - October 25, 1998

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