Roberto Matta Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Chilean, 1911-2002
“The function of art,” the Surrealist Roberto Matta once stated, “is to unveil the enormous economic, cultural and emotional forces that materially interact in our lives and that constitute the real space in which we live.” In his paintings, Matta sought to expose those forces through the Surrealist practice of automatism, creating work in a free-associative state intended to conjure the unconscious.
After studying architecture in his native Chile, Matta, then 22, chose to pursue the field in Paris, where he mingled with stars of the avant-garde like Gertrude Stein, Salvador Dalí and Walter Gropius. In the late 1930s, he abandoned Paris, together with his job at Le Corbusier’s studio and (for a time) his career, for modern art’s new epicenter, New York City. There, he became a colleague of art legends like Marcel Duchamp and Arshile Gorky.
Although celebrated primarily for his work as a painter, Matta was an equally talented furniture designer. His furniture pieces, like his artworks, are the stuff of dreams. The back of his totem chair, for example, is composed of smiling, cartoonish creatures stacked on top of each other. In his MAgriTTA armchair, the top half of a plush green apple sticks out of large black bowler in homage to its namesake, the Belgian Surrealist René Magritte.
But perhaps the piece that most truly embodies his artistic philosophy is his 1966 Mallite modular system: a collection of spongy, undulating sofas and lounges that can be fitted together to form a puzzle-like room divider. The work, an original edition of which is in MoMA’s permanent collection, has in recent decades been a hard-to-find collectors’ item — until 2019, when Italian design brand Paradisoterrestre issued a reedition, available through Duplex.
Browse Roberto Matta's paintings and furniture designs on 1stDibs.
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Artist: Roberto Matta
LA DULCE AQUA VITA
By Roberto Matta
Located in Aventura, FL
Carborundum etching on hand made paper. Hand signed lower front by Roberto Matta. Edition 111/125. Published by Nordstamp.
Artwork is in overall excellent condition. Certificate...
Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Roberto Matta Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Etching
Sans Titre 2 Original Pastel/Drawing on Paper
By Roberto Matta
Located in Hollywood, FL
Artist: Roberto Matta
Title: Sans Titre 2
Medium: Original pastel/drawing on paper
Signed: Hand Signed
Measurements: 20" x 25"
Framed: 28" x 35"
Authentication: Kajsa Westling N...
Category
1960s Surrealist Roberto Matta Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Archival Paper
Sans Titre 3 Original Pastel/Drawing on Paper
By Roberto Matta
Located in Hollywood, FL
Artist: Roberto Matta
Title: Sans Titre 3
Medium: Original pastel/drawing on paper
Signed: Hand Signed
Measurements: 20" x 27"
Framed: 28" x 35"
Authentication: Kajsa Westling N...
Category
1960s Surrealist Roberto Matta Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Archival Paper
Sans Titre Original Pastel/Drawing 1
By Roberto Matta
Located in Hollywood, FL
Artist: Roberto Matta
Title: Sans Titre 1
Medium: Original pastel/drawing on paper
Signed: Hand Signed
Year: 1969
Measurements: 12" x 16"
Framed: 20" x 24"
Authentication: Kajsa...
Category
1960s Surrealist Roberto Matta Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Archival Paper
Hommage to Germana Original Drawing
By Roberto Matta
Located in Hollywood, FL
Artist: Roberto Matta
Title: Hommage to Germana 1998
Medium: Original Black marker and colors drawing on paper
Signed: Hand Signed
Measurements: 6.5" x 8.5"
Framed: ...
Category
1990s Surrealist Roberto Matta Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper
ROBERTO MATTA - Untitled (Architecture) 1969
By Roberto Matta
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
ROBERTO MATTA - Untitled (Architecture)
Lithographie signée et numérotée sur 125
1969
Déchirure sur le haut de l’œuvre
75,5x56
490€
Category
1960s Roberto Matta Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper
THE MIND BEATENS (ORIGINAL DRAWING)
By Roberto Matta
Located in Aventura, FL
Original color drawing on paper. Hand signed lower front by Roberto Matta. Image size 12 x 16 inches. Frame size approx 23.25 x 27.5 inches.
Artwork is in overall excellent co...
Category
Mid-20th Century Contemporary Roberto Matta Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Color Pencil
UNTITLED (ORIGINAL DRAWING)
By Roberto Matta
Located in Aventura, FL
Original color drawing on paper. Hand signed lower front by Roberto Matta. Image size 12 x 16 inches. Frame size approx 23.25 x 27.5 inches.
Artwork is in overall excellent co...
Category
Mid-20th Century Contemporary Roberto Matta Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Paper, Color Pencil
Composition - Drawing by Roberto Matta - 1970s
By Roberto Matta
Located in Roma, IT
Composition is a wonderful Pastel drawing on paper realized in the early 1970s by the Surrealist artist Sebastián Matta (Santiago de Chile, 1911 - Civitavecchia, 2002).
Not signed,...
Category
1970s Surrealist Roberto Matta Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pencil
Untitled - Early Surrealist Pencil Drawing by Roberto Matta - 1950s
By Roberto Matta
Located in Roma, IT
Surrealist Drawing is an exceptional pencil drawing by the artist Roberto Sebastián Antonio Matta Echaurren, who signed on the lower right of the paper “Matta”. The artwork is in ver...
Category
1950s Surrealist Roberto Matta Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pencil
Foot Musik
By Roberto Matta
Located in Malmo, SE
Frame size 76x78 cm.
Free shipment worldwide.
Acquired directly from the artist.
Archive number (P90/41)
“The heart is an eye,” writes Nobel laureate Octavio Paz in an essay on Matta’s paintings. Matta creates a world coloured both by a sunny faith in the future and by visions of impending doom.
Roberto Sebastian Echaurren Antonio Matta, who died aged 91 on 23 November 2002, was born in Santiago, Chile, on 11 November 1911 into a family with Spanish, French and Basque roots, and raised in an atmosphere of religiosity. By the age of 21 he had graduated and begun work as an architect, but his leisure time he devoted to sketching and painting. In 1933 he travelled to Europe for the first time, visiting Greece, Yugoslavia, Italy and other countries, and subsequently taking the initiative to collaborate with the architect, Le Corbusier. As time passed, however, Matta’s enthusiasm for a career in architecture waned, and he began to devote himself full-time to art, making early acquaintances with surrealists such as Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí, André Breton and others.
Between 1939 and 1948 Matta, like many of his artistic contemporaries, lived in self-imposed exile in the USA, but, after almost 10 years’ absence from Europe, he returned to make first Rome and then, a few years later, Paris his home. Throughout most of the rest of his life Matta commuted between his studio in Paris and his creative refuge in the monastery outside Rome. And it is here, in Italy, that he produced his greatest paintings.
Matta’s first retrospective in Sweden was organised in 1956 when his works were exhibited in what was then Galerie Colibri – run by, among others, the artist C O Hultén...
Category
1990s Surrealist Roberto Matta Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gouache, Mixed Media
Foot Musik
By Roberto Matta
Located in Malmo, SE
Artwork size: 56 x 58 cm.
Frame size: 76 x 78 cm.
Free shipment worldwide.
Archive number (P90/36)
Acquired directly from the artist.
“The heart is an eye,” writes Nobel laureate Octavio Paz in an essay on Matta’s paintings. Matta creates a world coloured both by a sunny faith in the future and by visions of impending doom. Roberto Sebastian Echaurren Antonio Matta, who died aged 91 on 23 November 2002, was born in Santiago, Chile, on 11 November 1911 into a family with Spanish, French and Basque roots, and raised in an atmosphere of religiosity. By the age of 21 he had graduated and begun work as an architect, but his leisure time he devoted to sketching and painting. In 1933 he travelled to Europe for the first time, visiting Greece, Yugoslavia, Italy and other countries, and subsequently taking the initiative to collaborate with the architect, Le Corbusier. As time passed, however, Matta’s enthusiasm for a career in architecture waned, and he began to devote himself full-time to art, making early acquaintances with surrealists such as Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí, André Breton and others. Between 1939 and 1948 Matta, like many of his artistic contemporaries, lived in self-imposed exile in the USA, but, after almost 10 years’ absence from Europe, he returned to make first Rome and then, a few years later, Paris his home. Throughout most of the rest of his life Matta commuted between his studio in Paris and his creative refuge in the monastery outside Rome. And it is here, in Italy, that he produced his greatest paintings. Matta’s first retrospective in Sweden was organised in 1956 when his works were exhibited in what was then Galerie Colibri – run by, among others, the artist C O Hultén at number 36 Södra Förstadsgatan in Malmö, Sweden. This was also the time when Matta began to collaborate with poets and other artists in Sweden. He produced the illustrations for Lasse Söderberg’s first anthology of poems, Akrobaterna (“The Acrobats”), published in 1955, and was also responsible for the cover of the Swedish art and literary magazine Salamander. In 1959 the first museum exhibition of Matta’s work in Europe was arranged at the Museum of Modern Art (Moderna Museet) in Stockholm. Held under the aegis of Pontus Hultén, it was entitled “Fifteen Forms of Doubt” and included 15 or so gigantic paintings...
Category
1990s Surrealist Roberto Matta Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Mixed Media
Foot Musik.
By Roberto Matta
Located in Malmo, SE
Pastel, gouache and coffee on paper.
Artwork size: 58 x 56 cm.
Frame size: 78 x 76 cm.
Free shipment worldwide.
Acquired directly from the artist.
Archive number (P90/37)
“The heart is an eye,” writes Nobel laureate Octavio Paz in an essay on Matta’s paintings. Matta creates a world coloured both by a sunny faith in the future and by visions of impending doom.
Roberto Sebastian Echaurren Antonio Matta, who died aged 91 on 23 November 2002, was born in Santiago, Chile, on 11 November 1911 into a family with Spanish, French and Basque roots, and raised in an atmosphere of religiosity. By the age of 21 he had graduated and begun work as an architect, but his leisure time he devoted to sketching and painting. In 1933 he travelled to Europe for the first time, visiting Greece, Yugoslavia, Italy and other countries, and subsequently taking the initiative to collaborate with the architect, Le Corbusier. As time passed, however, Matta’s enthusiasm for a career in architecture waned, and he began to devote himself full-time to art, making early acquaintances with surrealists such as Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí, André Breton and others.
Between 1939 and 1948 Matta, like many of his artistic contemporaries, lived in self-imposed exile in the USA, but, after almost 10 years’ absence from Europe, he returned to make first Rome and then, a few years later, Paris his home. Throughout most of the rest of his life Matta commuted between his studio in Paris and his creative refuge in the monastery outside Rome. And it is here, in Italy, that he produced his greatest paintings.
Matta’s first retrospective in Sweden was organised in 1956 when his works were exhibited in what was then Galerie Colibri – run by, among others, the artist C O Hultén at number 36 Södra Förstadsgatan in Malmö, Sweden. This was also the time when Matta began to collaborate with poets and other artists in Sweden. He produced the illustrations for Lasse Söderberg’s first anthology of poems, Akrobaterna (“The Acrobats”), published in 1955, and was also responsible for the cover of the Swedish art and literary magazine Salamander.
In 1959 the first museum exhibition of Matta’s work in Europe was arranged at the Museum of Modern Art (Moderna Museet) in Stockholm. Held under the aegis of Pontus Hultén, it was entitled “Fifteen Forms of Doubt” and included 15 or so gigantic paintings...
Category
1990s Abstract Roberto Matta Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Mixed Media
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Roberto Matta abstract drawings and watercolors for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Roberto Matta abstract drawings and watercolors available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Roberto Matta in mixed media, pencil, paper and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the Surrealist style. Not every interior allows for large Roberto Matta abstract drawings and watercolors, so small editions measuring 8 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Benjamin G. Benno, Sergio Barletta, and Ian Hornak. Roberto Matta abstract drawings and watercolors prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $533 and tops out at $29,500, while the average work can sell for $10,012.
Artists Similar to Roberto Matta
Questions About Roberto Matta Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022Roberto Matta is a painter who became a noted part of the Surrealist movement. Born Roberto Antonio Sebastian Matta Echaurren in 1922 in Santiago, Chile, the artist began his professional life as an architect and slowly switched to painting. His work often featured complex biomorphic forms in disturbing settings, making him an important influence in the post World War II era. Shop a selection of Roberto Matta pieces from some of the world’s top art dealers on 1stDibs.
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022Chilean-born Roberto Matta is a modern art painter primarily known for his work in blending surrealism with abstract expressionism. You can shop a selection of expertly vetted Fairfield Porter pieces from some of the world’s top art dealers on 1stDibs.