An Examination of Andre Masson’s In the Tower of Sleep

by Chuck Angeline

Within any great work of art lives a timeless spirit, enabling the work to be, not only a manifestation of the artist, but also an expression of the cultural context in which it is created. A majority of Masson’s work, along with his contemporaries, was born out of the upheaval of war and conflict that had plagued Europe and the rest of the Western world since the inception of the industrial revolution. Europe was no stranger to long draw out wars, and America had rapidly become a notable contributor to the theatre of western imperialism. With the help of McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt, America had expanded its power throughout North America, with a clarion call for Manifest Destiny and a “Big Stick” foreign policy. With western imperialism in full swing it was just a matter of time before Europe, and the kindling that was “Western Civilization”, would be engulfed in not one but two world wars. 

The period of time between the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II, referred to as the Interwar Years (1919-1938), also consist of a creative explosion throughout Europe as artists, many of which had experienced the devastating effects of the First World War, in one way or another, began to collaborate creatively. In the wake of War many anti-bourgeois movements, such as Dada and Surrealism, would eventually become some of the most influential and radical art movements in Europe, while condemning the bourgeois nationalist culture and its capitalistic ideologies, which they believed fueled the profiteering that lead to total war. 

Meanwhile, the wealth of information gained from soldiers regarding the intense emotional stress they had endured led to leaps and bounds being made in the field of Psychology. The progress that would be made, specifically by Sigmund Freud and Carl G. Jung, inadvertently influenced a majority of visual and literary artists in Europe, specifically the Surrealists, yet would take almost 20 years to be translated from German. Never the less, the writings of these two psychologists would reach many artists and become the fuel that would stoke the fire of discontent, which eventually led many artists towards La Révolution surréaliste (The Surrealist Revolution). 

During the interwar period many Europeans, gripped by the devastation of the First World, had trouble coping with such upheaval. Meanwhile, artists across the European continent began sublimating their pain and expressing their nightmares through act of creativity. The psychological effects of war on the human psyche were self-evident in many of the artists’ work, which lead to a notable period in art that would serve as a constant reminder of Europe’s capacity for self-destruction. The shellshock of war that engulfed Europe during the first half of the 20th century would be preserved in iconic works, most notably Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, Salvador Dali’s Face of War, Max Ernst’s Europe after the Rain I & II and Andre Masson’s In the Tower of Sleep. 

Andre Masson was also no stranger to the ill effects of war, after volunteering for duty in World War I. In April of 1917 Masson took part in the Chemin des Dames offensive, in which, on the first day of combat alone, the French army suffered over 40,000 casualties and lost 150 tanks. During the offensive Masson suffered a severe chest wound, accounts of which vary, but most seem to agree that Masson experienced some sort of vision, which would eventually catalyze his work as an artist. With such a background in military service Masson’s work, especially In the Tower of Sleep, would display the horrors of war more aggressively than any other visual artist associated with the Surrealist movement. Although Picasso’s Guernica is arguably the most famous painting on the subject of war, it more accurately displays the immediately psychical and psychological horrors of a bombing rather than the lingering psychological aspects, such as the insomnia, anger, and hyper-vigilance induced by the nightmare and flashbacks associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which would persistently plague survivors of war, such as Masson, decades after the end of their active duty. 

Such works like Picasso’s Guernica and Dali’s Visage of War capture, essentially, the horror of war from a non-military experience, but Masson’s In the Tower of Sleep represents more accurately the totality of war. I believe that Masson’s experience of war, both on the frontlines, and in civilian life, afforded him the ability to paint a more evocative depiction of modern warfare. Being on the frontlines of World War I adds a dimension to Masson’s work and his discontent of war, to borrow a phrase from Freud, which few of the artists had the opportunity to experience. This is in no way a dismissal of the mass destruction and devastation that cities across Europe would experience with the advent of the bomber during World War II, captured best in Picasso’s Guernica. But rather an affirmation that the frontline experience in the first global war in history would add a dimension of war that is not inherent in Guernica. Specifically, the combination of 20th century technology with a 19th century fighting style of trench warfare, which coincidentally, was laced with the aroma of humanities most brutal experience with the advent of modern chemical warfare. 

Masson’s painting is a complex and chaotic work, seething with symbolic imagery and intricate motifs. The subject of the painting is an immense and powerful man composed of nothing but muscle and bone with a stomach filled with thorns and fluid that appears to be seminal flowing from the genital area that is lacking a phallus. His struggle is extremely heart wrenching, since he is caught within a harp like structure laced with teeth that will inevitably dig deeper the more the human physique struggles. Symbolically a harp can represent spiritual harmony, but within the context of this painting the harp is transformed into an obstruction to harmony. The figure indiscriminately barrels forward with his head down, contributing to the chaos in a desperate attempt to escape the burning tower. This may represent humanity’s tragic ignorance of the effects of war on the collective of mankind, who’ve become blinded by the ideologies of nationalism. 

The harp itself contains an anthropomorphic metamorphosis of a naked woman. Perhaps this is alluding to the libidinous energy brooding in the young men on the frontlines, and the perversion of these energies in the interest of nationalism. The missing phallus may also be symbolic of the desire to destroy life rather than create it, self-evident in the Third Reich’s attempt to wipe an entire civilization off the face of the earth. It could also be a symbolic representation of the palladium from Greek mythologies, which was thought to provide protection for a city. Alternately, if alluding to a personal context, the painting would also symbolize Masson’s many attempts to escape war torn areas of Europe. He had fled from France to Spain shortly after witnessing the Paris Riots. Shortly thereafter he would, as an émigré once again, leave Spain at the first signs of the Spanish Civil War. His relentless exile would eventually land him in America in order to evade the Nazis, since the Third Reich had already labeled his artwork “degenerate”, and would have persecuted his wife who was Jewish. 

Another aspect of the painting I’d like to draw your attention to is the other musical instruments in the tower, which are hidden within the background and are overshadowed by the harp in the foreground. Behind the figure there is a cello like instrument, which is also anthropomorphized with arms, that is playing its own strings with a saw, and a piano with teeth submerged in flames. All Three instruments contain within them a jagged motif, which in harp and piano seem to represent teeth, while the jagged motif in the cello serves a more decorative effect. Martin Ries, in his article André Masson: Surrealist, Survivor, Sage, decries the cello as, "A humanoid, Bosch-like musical instrument, reminiscent of the scorpion-like insects in Ophelia..." which, "tears its own strings with a saw-like bow in a sadomasochistic serenade."

One more predominant image is found in the setting of the piece, which arises directly from the title in the form of the tower. A tower can imply spiritual elevation, power and protection. But within the context of Masson’s painting the tower is engulfed in flames, reducing the fortified sanctuary to a hellish trap filled with fear and turmoil. This particular symbolism could be both a personal and transpersonal representation. On one hand it evokes Masson’s battle with insomnia, which was fueled by nightmares of war. On a transpersonal level, this same inner turmoil became a fairly common experience for any soldiers suffering from Posttraumatic stress disorder, constantly relived within the nightmares and flashbacks experienced by many veterans. If, in fact, the tower does represent the subconscious mind, it could also embody the collective subconscious of Europe, brimming with the horrifying experiences of  total war. This, seemingly, would allow the fire and destruction to represent the pain, fear and anxiety arising within the psyche, immortalized by the turmoil, which would inundate Europe during the first half of the 20th century. 

To conclude, I believe that what Masson did so well, which makes him a true master, is demonstrate his ability to create uncertainty ,with the lack of explicit detail, regarding the artifice of the work. Historically, this is perhaps a fundamental aspect when it comes to establishing a work of art, which allows it the capacity to be as captivating and enigmatic as when it was first created. What is particularly enigmatic about the work is the  colossal human figure in the painting. It appears to capture a majority of the movement within the piece, which continuously brings the viewer’s gaze back to it each time you scan over this chaotic and masterful scene. Also, much of the uncertainty within this piece appears to be emanating directly from this figure, since it is unclear whether he is an innocent bystander, fleeing the devastation behind him, or rather an active participant creating the destruction left in his wake. Perhaps it is this particular mystery that has enchants us each and every time we see it. Regardless, no matter how modernized the art of war becomes, this painting will continue to express those intangibles that makes war so utterly devastating to the human psyche.

Art and the Invocation of Spirit

by Chuck Angeline

The term spirit has countless meaning and overtones; everyone may have some personal concept of spirit, so we all define it differently. In that way the idea of spirit is not only very similar, but perhaps even integral to the human manifestation we call ‘art’. Creativity and art walk hand in hand, but are two separate aspects of an artist. To a vast majority of artists, creativity is a spiritual practice of expression and catharsis, the end result is the manifestation of art, an artifact of the immaterial process that we call spirit. Creativity, for some artists, is a process that focuses the mind and helps connect the psyche to the deeper part of our spirit, or even a deeper part of the collective human spirit.

The process of creativity does not away produce a work of art. For most artists the process of creativity is an act of play that can free the mind from the symptoms of contemporary life, and the obstacles that hold the rest of our culture in psychological chains. The creative process is not about perfection or precision, but rather refinement. It is the process of working from a rough idea, mistakes and all, to a more refined idea. The mental process for the act of creating is born out of a contention, for most artists, that there is no such thing as a mistake. Mistakes are simply manifestations of the mind; they are the residual effect of an educated minds ability to discriminate and display the illusory effects of our perceptions.

The ability to transcend the fear of making a mistake is one of the most important aspects which separate the artists from the rest of humanity. Through education we have been taught to perceive things as being dualistic (ie. Right and wrong, up and down, Heaven and Hell) which, inevitably, sets the stage for the formal academic arena, where mistakes are viewed as not only  time consuming, but will coast you points on a test, money in the financial world and should be avoided at all costs. The problem with this ideology is that it has stifled the creative capacities of the younger generations, all of which should be actively creative. This is probably the reason that those of us who are actively creative and consider ourselves artists have a propensity for questioning, rebellion and protesting such ludicrous idea as either being false or grossly misleading.

Some people tend to believe that the word ‘artist’ is nothing more than another job title within society, and like any other profession it can be taught. I feel that technique and aesthetics can be taught, but the mastery of technique and aesthetics alone will not produce an artists, let alone great art. Technique and aesthetics embody the science of art, but not the spirit. Everything, at least in relation to technique, aesthetics, and even anti-anesthetics has been done by previous generations, leaving the artist with little too offer, except for the expression of their own unique vision, while attempting to create work that will be the embodiment of their spirit. As a result, the artists' task is to capture an eternal moment of unity between the spirit, and quite possibly the source of spirit, into an artifact of transcendental experience, which we call ‘art’.

It is interesting that a majority of artists rarely refer to their physical creations as art, but rather a “piece” or a “work”. The only artists that I know that make a concerted effort to refer to the material objects that they produce as ‘art’ are Conceptual artists, since defining your work as art is integral to their dogma. However there are, hopefully, a substantial amount of artists that operate by more modest means, leaving the decision of whether a ‘work’ can validate itself to the viewer and thus be called ‘art’. By attempting to instigate an inner resonate within the viewer, the artist hopes to elicit some kind of resonance within the viewer that may provoke them to call the ‘piece’ a “work of art.”

By speaking of art as a manifestation of spirit, and creativity as a spiritual practice I am hoping to foster within every human being the importance of creativity, not only to human culture and history, but also as a universal tool of psychological growth. The process of creating has the power to, not only liberate us from our problems, but also can successfully sublimate them in perhaps the safes way possible as an alternative to obsessive behaviors, which we call vice. Personally I find that drug abuse and obsessive behaviors like shopping are never effective ways for dealing with inner turmoil and psychological stress.

For example, after receiving a DUI when I was 22 I began to draw at the bars I frequented in order to sublimate the desire to conform to social pressure. Eventually I reached a certain breaking point where the more I would draw in such environments, the more conducive the environment became to me creatively. It's as if my creative spirit began to feed on those energies and used them to create what I call ‘creatures of the collective’, or symbolic representations of those energies which surrounded me. Inevitably these creatures would have an opportunity to confront the sentient beings, which helped create them, as long as they were curious enough to glace over my shoulder. As a result, my early work became a vehicle for my spirit, channeling it towards a self-expression of personal experience and empathy, which, I believe, are some of the most integral aspects of good art.

If we collectively look at creativity as a spiritual discipline, while artists everywhere attempt to foster within everyone the ideal that the creative impulse is universal to all of humanity, and is as valid as anyone else’s, then hopefully we can begin to shift our ideal of art from just another commodity to be bought and sold in the markets of commerce, toward something more comprehensive and universal. I believe this is the most important role that an artist can fulfill. Some artists, for instance Alex Grey and Alan Moore, have gone as far as to refer to the artist as the closest thing in the contemporary world to a Shaman, which I have found to be quite intriguing and perhaps even a fundamental truth. For example, one of the ideals that I think the artist shares with the  Shaman is the ability to view our role in society as a unifier of spiritual energy, through the communion both of the culture and of all sentient being within the cosmos, while channel that energy toward the most advantageous and promising goals possible. This is the most esteemed role of the shaman and should be seen as the function of the artist within society, and the rest of the cosmos.

Religious Intolerance: An Obstruction to the Over-Soul of Humanity

In response to the violence in Afghanistan today regarding the Quran burning by Terry Jones I, on behalf of the Ministry of the Dead, would like to state that violence of any form, along with religious bigotry undermine the unifying love of God or, as we in ministry refer to it, the universe. The blatant disregard for sacred objects, such as holy books, and the violence that may follow when one desecrates something held in high regard by a group of people, is not a justification for the act in and of itself. If we can learn anything from this debacle it is that the religious ideologies that lead people to justify burning religious books or acts of violence are despicable and display our inability to transcend dogmas as old as the Middle Ages. As Terrence Mckenna has stated, "I think ideology is toxic, all ideology. It’s not that there are good ones and bad ones. All ideology is toxic, because ideology is a kind of insult to the gift of human free thinking." and that, “”Ideology always paves the way toward atrocity.”

Let us step back from these atrocities and examine not only the root cause of religious intolerance, which is doctrine and dogma, which we in the Ministry see as the sole provocation of men, not of God or the Universe and reach out to one another across the imaginary lines that separate and marginalize humanity, and prevent the unification of the individual mind, body and spirit of each human being into what Ralph Waldo Emerson referred to as the “Over-soul” of humanity.

“The Supreme Critic on the errors of the past and the present, and the only prophet of that which must be, is that great nature in which we rest, as the earth lies in the soft arms of the atmosphere; that Unity, that Over-soul, within which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all other; that common heart.”

From the Over-soul an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is the Ministry of the Dead?

The idea for the Ministry of The Dead has been in incubation since I was young. I was raised in a christian family like most Americans, but as I grew older I failed to see the logic in the application of christian ideals towards social issues in America. The extremely pious would spout rhetoric that everyone must accept Jesus to be saved, abortion violated the 5^th commandment and that homosexuals were inevitably going to hell. At the same time, secular atheists touted science as the solution to all of humanity's problems, while scolding religion as a nuisance that needed to be wiped out all together in order to facilitate a long overdue evolution.

Fortunately enough, I was raised in a family that celebrated humor and art over religious bigotry and scientific snobbery. Subsequently, I took interests in stand-up comedy and drawing at a very young age. The freedom of which, granted me the ability to construct a philosophical framework that encouraged the questioning nature of philosophy, and the observational nature of science, while fostering a healthy spiritual practice in the self expression of art. As a result, art became the means of uniting the false paradigm between the mystical gnosis of religion, and the fact based knowledge of science. Many people fail to acknowledge that the process of art has existed well before religion and science, and that it is alchemical mixture of both disciplines. Art is the practice of using aesthetics, which has it root in the science mathematics, but unlike religion art, “recognizing the figurative value of the mythic symbols” which religion, “would have us believe in their literal sense, and revealing their deep and hidden truth through an ideal presentation.” as Richard Wagner once wrote.

This past September 11^th a pastor in Florida raised controversy when he declared that he would make September 11, 2010 “burn a Koran Day”. The shear arrogance of this pastor, and many of the other non-Christlike televangelist that spread a message of hate and intolerance, prompted me to reconsider the idea of becoming ordained and starting my own ministry to promote the love and forgiveness that Jesus once talked about. I was also fueled by a book by Deepak Chopra that my girlfriend gave me called The Third Jesus. As a result I got myself ordained and started The Ministry of the Dead. It seemed clear that Jesus spent a lot of his time trying to explain to us how we can transcend the pains of the world. Contrary to popular belief, Jesus' message was not about accepting him as the lord and savor of mankind, which would forgive us for our sins, but a message about consciousness. It is only at the human level that the concept of sin exists, to the contrary the universe is quite forgiving. In fact, Jesus made a point to show us that God's ability to be a loving and compassionate entity was eternal, and also unconditional. As long as we can forgive ourselves, and more importantly that we can forgive others for their transgressions, then we can work are way closer towards unity with the Universe.

Why the Ministry of the Dead? Because Jesus' ultimate sacrifice was death, both his psychical death, and his many spiritual deaths. In order to transcend we must kill what we “know”, and look at the world unadulterated by the culture that surrounds us. By dissolving the known, not only our concepts of reality, which are embedded in our culture, but by transcending our concept of who we are, and the roles we play in our society then, and only then, can we reach higher realms of consciousness that will transform a state of duality into pure unity. The only way to attain unity with God, or more appropriately the universe, is by dissolving everything that fosters a reality that you are separate from the universe in the first place, the root of this is your ego. I'd like to make myself clear that when I use the word ego, I'm not talking about a sense of pride, but the psychological aspect of a human psyche that identifies itself through an empirical process of what makes it different then everyone, and more importantly, everything else. Everything you know about yourself within a culture is the result of a systematic empiricism, which  creates the illusion that you are separate from the universe. It is true that we all have different personalities and different roles within society, but we are all in this together, and our unity is symbolic of our true realization of god, and the universe.

As our civilization is approaching a critical epoch of information, the effects of which are still not know, it has transformed an event in the future into what maybe the most important in human history, and we must treat it this way. As humanity approaches such an epoch, less and less are becoming prepared for the challenges our species faces. We must do what we can to facilitate a cohesive union of knowledge in order to deal with the event. Such a cohesive union, which I will call the “ways of knowing”, whether that be scientific, religious or aesthetic knowledge can help in the preparation for what may be the dawning of a new paradigm in human civilization. It is because of this that art may be, and quite possibly is, the unifying factor that has constantly linked our scientific and religious heritage as one in the same. Let us create the world that we desire by being, as Gandhi said, “the change you want to see.”

- The Dead Guy