Matta (1911-2002)

Elisabeth Onslow Ford Rouslin (gift from the artist 1939)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

There is minor foxing to the paper, more visible on the reverse and on the lower part of the paper. There are four pinholes (one in each corner of the paper.) There is some mat staining on each of the edges. The upper edge of the paper is slightly uneven. There is slight rippling to the paper and there is very faint smudging throughout. The colors are very bright and vibrant. Overall, this work in very good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Fig. 1, Gordon Onslow Ford, Matta and Esteban Francés à Chemillieu, 1939, photograph by Elisabeth Onslow Ford Rouslin

The present work was given by Matta to Elisabeth Onslow Ford Rouslin, Gordon Onlsow Ford's sister in appreciation for her teaching the Chilean ex-patriot English when he arrived in Europe in the late 1930s. Its title, I, said the Sparrow, is the first line of the old English poem Who Killed Cock Robin?. During her time in France in 1938 and 1939, Elisabeth worked as an English teacher and Matta was introduced to this poem by her, the title of which Matta has hidden in the composition of the present work.

During the summer of 1939, Matta joined Gordon Onslow Ford and his sister Elisabeth, along with a group of the Surrealists including André Breton and the artists Yves Tanguy, Kay Sage and Esteban Francés at the Château de Chemillieu, where Balthus had spent the previous summer. The summer was a magical one as the house became a hot bed of activities, poetry, painting, and the creation of cadavre exquis. In the world outside, Hitler invaded Poland, but here all of the artists turned their attention inward and were free to focus on their artistic and intellectual pursuits, working in a harmonious atmosphere, each in their different rooms set up as ateliers in the Chateau. They would not spend another summer in France together as a group.

In addition to employing the technique of automatism, the inclusion of biomorphic forms was central to the tenets of the Surrealists' vocabulary. Matta himself stated that the only artists who meant anything to him during the late 1930s were Yves Tanguy and Marcel Duchamp (Uwe Schneede, Surrealism, Cologne, 1973, p. 136). Indeed, the influence of Tanguy's 'landscapes' can be inferred in the early works of Matta, who coined the term Psychological Morphology or Inscapes, the landscapes of the mind, for his own work of the late 1930s.  This period of creativity was the era that allowed the artist to produce his most compelling drawings and paintings.  

As inevitable war loomed in Europe, Matta's increasing angst was the catalyst for his escape into the subconscious, allowing him to articulate his journey into limitless space and time on both paper and canvas. Following his move to the United States in 1940, Matta's drawings greatly impressed the young artists he met there, in particular Robert Motherwell (with whom he travelled to Mexico in 1941) and Arshille Gorky.  Motherwell later considered his works on paper of the early 1940s to be amongst "the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful, works made in New York at this time" (William Rubin, "Matta aux Etats-Unis: Une note personnelle", Matta (exhibition catalogue), Musée national d'art moderne, Paris, 1985, p. 23).