The painter and the time 1938

André Masson made this painting, ‘The painter and the time’ using oil on canvas with a palette of earthy yellows, greens, and oranges that feel both vibrant and grounded. Looking at the wild collection of imagery, I imagine him working intuitively, letting forms emerge and morph on the canvas. The more I look at it, the more I want to join him in his studio, to understand his process. Maybe he was thinking about Surrealism, or the way time warps and bends when you are making a painting. Is that a sunflower I see, or is it the sun? And why is the mouth open so wide? Painting for Masson seems to be a site of inquiry, where the material act of applying paint becomes a way of thinking, of questioning the nature of reality. Painters are always looking at each other, you know, riffing off ideas, pushing boundaries. Masson looked at Picasso. And I look at Masson. We are all in conversation, creating a lineage of mark-making across time and space. We embrace uncertainty, allowing for a multitude of interpretations and meanings.