馬塔

Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York (1969)

Carla Simons (1970)

B.C. Holland, Inc., Chicago

Harold Diamond, New York

Galleria La Medusa, Rome (acquired by 1976)

Sale: Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, Latin American Paintings, 10th June 1982, lot 9

Private Collection, Madrid

Acquired by the present owner in 2011

New York, Pierre Matisse Gallery, Matta, 1942, no. 15

Galleria dell'Oca (ed.), Matta: Opere dal 1939 al 1975, Rome, 1976, no. 5, illustrated

The canvas is unlined, and is on a new stretcher. Apart from several very small spots of retouching in the yellow pigment towards the lower edge, a small spot of retouching in the white pigment above it, a few very small spots in the grey pigment in the upper left, and some small spots and lines of retouching scattered along the edges, visible under ultra-violet light, this work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although the grey tones are more blue and less red in the original.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

After receiving his architecture degree from the Universidad Católica in Chile, in 1933 Roberto Matta settled in Paris where he worked in the studio of Le Corbusier. It was in Paris that he met Picasso, Dalí, Tanguy, Gordon Onslow Ford and other Surrealist artists and these encounters intensified Matta's interest in Surrealism. Ultimately, he gave up his work as an architect and devoted himself to experimenting with collage as well as to painting and drawing. Dalí arranged for Matta to meet André Breton, who purchased two of his drawings and enthusiastically encouraged him to continue developing his technique. In a 1939 revue of Minotaure by Breton Matta was quickly heralded as the auspicious new talent in the Surrealist movement.

 

Once Matta was rid of the constraints imposed by his rigid architectural training, his fluid line developed to create mesmerising works, while retaining from architecture a great facility in depicting multidimensional space. He was fascinated by the technique of automatism as well as the imagery of biomorphic forms, elements central to the tenets of the Surrealists’ ideology. Matta himself stated that the only artists who meant anything to him during the late 1930s were Tanguy and 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 from this period. The influence of Marcel Duchamp, on the other hand, opened for Matta the possibility of depicting time and change in visual art. He began to experiment with ways of painting objects in physical transformation in spaces that exploded the confines of the conventional three dimensions. Matta's quest to capture metamorphosis and to depict objects in transformation in the same space-time remained a preoccupation throughout his prolific career.

 

Towards the end of 1939, shortly after the outbreak of the war, Matta left Paris for New York and soon settled in Greenwich Village, where he joined Yves Tanguy and Kay Sage. The onset of World War II was the catalyst for the arrival of many other artists including André Breton, Max Ernst, André Masson and others, a shift that heralded the transition of the centre of the art world from Paris to New York. In 1940 the dealer Pierre Matisse started exhibiting Matta’s work, and in March-April 1942 he organised the artist’s first solo show, in which the present work was included. Of the ten paintings that were exhibited, several are now in major museum collections, including The Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York (fig. 1). During his years in America, Matta acted as the conduit between Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. His seminal works created between 1938 and 1944 can be regarded as the building blocks whose spirit and technique inspired painters such as Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky, Robert Motherwell and Franz Kline.