Roberto Matta

ROBERTO MATTA (Santiago de Chile, 1911 - Civitavecchia, Italy, 2002).
Untitled.
Etching, copy 20/85.
Signed and justified by hand.
Measurements: 24 x 18 cm (print); 38,5 x 28,5 cm (paper).

Roberto Matta was an architect, poet, humanist and painter whose works of surrealist and metaphysical inspiration illustrated a dreamlike world linked to modern technological civilization. The son of a large family with a tendency towards the artistic world, with great influence from his maternal grandfather, he trained as an architect in Santiago de Chile and with Le Corbusier in Paris, between 1934 and 1935, where he befriended the painter Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso. At the outbreak of World War II he moved to the United States, and lived in New York between 1939 and 1948. There he met André Breton, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy and André Masson, and his style had a decisive influence on the formulation of American abstract expressionism. Matta dedicated himself to the realization of works in which he repeated representations of volcanoes and earthquakes, all of them under the theme of the cosmic creation of nature. Matta's work added new dimensions to contemporary painting, despite his break - for unknown reasons - with the surrealist movement in 1947. Settled in Rome, he continued to evolve his career during the 1950s. He traveled to South America, portraying and capturing the essence of the native peoples. Although he rejoined the surrealist world in 1959, he experimented with different forms of artistic expression, including video productions such as "Système 88", photography and other means of expression. In 1967 he moved his residence to Tarquinia, Italy, varying his residence in long stays in Paris, London and New York. In 1971 he worked a revolutionary air art, executing collective murals in the commune of La Granja. He is represented in the most important art galleries dedicated to modern art in the world, such as the MoMA and the Metropolitan in New York, Thyssen-Bornemisza or the Tate Gallery in London. Matta's style led him to become one of the most important artists of the twentieth century, receiving high international distinctions among which the National Art Award from the Government of Chile.