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.