Roberto Matta Prints

Vintage pencil signed lithograph print by Roberto Matta, showing surrealist style figures in car-like vehicles below Greek / Roman style soldie...

He was born in the Chilean capital on November 11, 1911 (11.11.11), a figure that he would frequently use in his artistic career. He was one of the four children of Roberto Matta Tagle and Mercedes Echaurren Herboso, people with great social roots and economic resources in the Chile of his time. He studied at the College of the Sacred Hearts of Santiago; Back then, he was a neighbor of Nemesio Antúnez. In those years he also began to stand out with his notes on drawing and calligraphy. Like his brothers, Mario and Sergio, who were a furniture designer and fashion designer, respectively, he received a profound aesthetic influence from his maternal grandfather, Víctor Echaurren, who - in an amateur way - was a designer of stage plays and operas. His family was of Basque-French origin. In the early 1930s, he participated in some demonstrations against the dictator Carlos Ibáñez del Campo; likewise, he performed military service in the "Coraceros Regiment" of Viña del Mar, repressing the demonstrations in which he had previously participated, which caused him great anti-military sentiment. The first goal of the Chilean people, the work of Matta in conjunction with the Ramona Parra Brigade. Roberto Matta, Three Figures, 1958, M. T. Abraham Center for Visual Arts. She completed her university studies at the School of Architecture of the Catholic University of Chile, her title thesis being a project called The League of Religions, which consisted of sketches of buildings in the shape of a woman in various positions.6 At the same time, she attended workshops free at the School of Fine Arts, being a student of the painter Hernán Gazmuri, who had been arriving from France. In addition, he worked as an illustrator in the satirical magazine Topaze. He graduated as an architect in 1935. Subsequently, he traveled to Europe on a merchant ship. While in Portugal, he met Gabriela Mistral, who was consul in that country. The poet helped Matta, who lived in her house for three months. According to the painter, during that time he fell in love with Mistral, even asking for her hand, but the poet did not accept. During his stay in Paris he worked in the studio of the architect Le Corbusier, whom he met thanks to Roberto Dávila. According to the historian Hernán Marchant, the relationship between Matta and Le Corbusier was characterized by “much admiration, but with some rivalry.” On the old continent, he also met the artists André Breton, Salvador Dalí, Arshile Gorky and René Magritte. It was Breton who encouraged the Chilean artist, valued his work and introduced him to the circle of the main members of the Parisian surrealist movement. Matta produced illustrations and articles for the surrealist newspaper Minotaure. During this period he became friends with prominent European contemporary artists, such as Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp. A decisive moment for Matta's artistic career occurred in 1938, when he went from drawing to oil painting, for which he is very famous. This period coincided with his travel and residence, until 1948, in the United States. His first paintings, among which Night Invasion stood out, gave an indication of the artistic route taken by the painter. The use of diffuse light patterns and thick lines on top of a particular background became one of its hallmarks. During the 1940s and 1950s, his painting reflected the disturbing state of international politics, using images of electric machines and tormented people. By adding clay to his works, from the 1960s onward, he added dimension to his distortion. Matta's work added new dimensions to contemporary painting, despite his break - for unknown reasons - with the Surrealist movement in 1947. Despite being reinstated in 1959, his fame earned is exclusively personal. He experienced different forms of artistic expression, including video productions such as Système 88, photography, and other means of expression. In 1985 he received the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts, in 1990 he received the National Art Prize; in 1992, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts and in 1995 he obtained the Praemium Imperiale in the category of Painting. He lived regularly since the 1960s in the Italian town of Tarquinia, located north of Rome, making sporadic trips to his country. During the 1960s he ventured into furniture design after meeting the Italian designer Dino Gavina, creating in 1966 the "Malitte Lounge...