Roberto Matta

Roberto Mata
Born in Nov. 11, 1911, Chile (deceased Nov. 23, 2002), a son of Spain
Architect, Catholic University Santiago

In 1935, he left to Paris and started working at "Le Corbusier Atelier". In 1936, when he acquainted with Marcel Ducham, left his job and the atelier and started designing. Gordon Onslow Ford, his friend, has told about his designs in this period: "Un-expected Spaces, full of Woven Body, Disturbed Architecture and Supernatural Plants".

Later, when he acquainted with Andre Breton, he became more close to Surrealist movement. His first painting was created in 1938.

He has leant Incas, Aztec and Maya cultures in Mexico, Jose Marti in Lisbon, Surrealism in Paris and he art was completed in Paris and New York. He knew Spanish, French and English and he has lived in Paris, New York, London and Rome.

In 1938-39, he has created two collections: "Psychological Morphologies" and "Inscapes".

In 1939, he traveled to United States and resided in Maine; this made a great change in his works and indeterminate his works.

His travel to Mexico, in 1941, and the intact nature of it creates some kind of volcanoes and galaxies, shaping and bursting, in his new works. Later, he used some elements as water, fire, stone, space, time and movement in his paintings.

His "Abstract Surrealism" works were created during 1943-45, which were rooted from the Surrealism of Marcel Ducham. Later, "New York School" was created by Robert Motherwell and Jackson Pollack upon this experience.

On Nov. 23, 2002, Chile announced 3 days National Mourning.
 http://www.caroun.com/Painting/Chile/RobertoMatta.html

 

 Hallucifer

 Le Doute des Trois Mondes

 Untitled

 

 Contra vosotros asesinos de Palomas

 Chilean-born artist Roberto Matta was an international figure whose worldview represented a synthesis of European, American and Latin American cultures. As a member of the Surrealist movement and an early mentor to several Abstract Expressionists, Matta broke with both groups to pursue a highly personal artistic vision. His mature work blended abstraction, figuration and multi-dimensional spaces into complex, cosmic landscapes. Matta's long and prolific career was defined by a strong social conscience and an intense exploration of the his internal and external worlds. 

• Matta broke with the conventions of the Surrealist movement by adding a dimension of social and political awareness to his work.
• Matta often supplemented an aesthetic of pure abstraction with elements of figuration and precisely rendered, though fantastically conceived, three-dimensional space.
• Matta's exploration of the unconscious mind through a symbolic language of abstract forms greatly influenced the early development Abstract Expressionism. 

 In the mid-1940s, Matta's work changed dramatically. Responding to the continuing horrors of the Second World War, Matta expanded his artistic interests beyond his exploration of the subconscious mind. He moved towards a more active engagement with the world in a series of works that he called "Social Morphologies". Many of Matta's paintings from this period incorporate strangely menacing, machine-like contraptions and totemic human forms. He pitted these elements against each other in seemingly constant battle within a landscape of amorphous spaces and vaguely architectural planes. These works have a new emotional immediacy, reverberating with a formal tension created by the often violently oppositional forms. 
  http://www.theartstory.org/artist-matta-roberto.htm