1975
“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.
10PM from L'Arc Obscur des Heures, Surrealist Etching by Roberto Matta
By Roberto Matta
Located in Long Island City, NY
Roberto Matta, Chilean (1911 - 2002) - 10PM from L'Arc Obscur des Heures, Year: 1975, Medium: Etching with Aquatint, signed and numbered in pencil, Edition: 89/125, Image Size: 1...
Etching, Aquatint
12 AM from L'Arc Obscur des Heures, Surrealist Aquatint Etching by Roberto Matta
By Roberto Matta
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Roberto Matta, Chilean (1911 - 2002) Title: 12 AM from L'Arc Obscur des Heures Year: 1975 Medium: Aquatint Etching, Signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 51/125, XXXIII Imag...
Etching, Aquatint
2 AM from L'Arc Obscur des Heures, Surrealist Aquatint Etching by Roberto Matta
By Roberto Matta
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Roberto Matta, Chilean (1911 - 2002) Title: 2 AM from L'Arc Obscur des Heures Year: 1975 Medium: Aquatint Etching, Signed and numbered in pencil Edition: XXXI/XXXIII Image Si...
Etching, Aquatint
5PM from L'Arc Obscur des Heures, Surrealist Aquatint Etching by Roberto Matta
By Roberto Matta
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Roberto Matta, Chilean (1911 - 2002) Title: 5PM from L'Arc Obscur des Heures Year: 1975 Medium: Aquatint Etching, Signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 125, XXXIII Image Siz...
Etching, Aquatint
8 AM from L'Arc Obscur des Heures, Aquatint Etching by Roberto Matta
By Roberto Matta
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Roberto Matta, Chilean (1911 - 2002) Title: 8 AM from L'Arc Obscur des Heures Year: 1975 Medium: Aquatint Etching on Arches, signed and numbered in pencil Edition: 125, XXXII...
Etching, Aquatint
4 AM from L'Arc Obscur des Heures, Surrealist Aquatint Etching by Roberto Matta
By Roberto Matta
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Roberto Matta, Chilean (1911 - 2002) Title: 4 AM from L'Arc Obscur des Heures Year: 1975 Medium: Aquatint Etching, Signed and numbered in pencil Edition: XXXI/XXXIII Image Si...
Etching, Aquatint
Hours of the Day series, 10pm
By Roberto Matta
Located in Miami, FL
TECHNICAL INFORMATION Roberto Matta Hours of the Day Series, 10pm 1975 Etching with aquatint 25 x 36 in. Edition of 9 Pencil signed and numbered Condition: This work is in excellent condition. It has never been framed and always stored flat for its protection Frame: Unframed The first true flowering of Matta's own art came in 1938, when he moved from drawing to the oil painting for which he is best known. This period coincided with his emigration to the United States, where he lived until 1948. His early paintings, give an indication of the work he would continue, with diffuse light patterns and bold lines on a featureless background. As Matta’s work evolved, his key ambition to represent and evoke the human psyche in visual form was filtered through the writings of Freud and the psychoanalytic view of the mind as a three-dimensional space. These paintins "are visual analogies for the artist's psyche". During the 1940's and 1950's, the disturbing state of world politics found reflection in Matta's work, with the canvases becoming busy with images of electrical machinery and distressed figures. In his art Matta creates new dimensions in a blend of organic and cosmic lifeforms, known as biomorphism. He was one of the first Surrealists to take this abstract leap, successfully combining the political and the semi-abstract in epic surreal canvases.
Etching, Aquatint
Or Dur Or Aison, Lithograph, Contemporary, Hand Signed, Edition of 175, 1976
By Roberto Matta
Located in Aventura, FL
Hand signed and numbered by the artist. Artwork is in excellent condition. Additional images are available upon request. Certificate of Authenticity is included. Edition of 175. All...
Lithograph, Paper
Tout se Tient - Lithograph by R.S. Matta - 1975
By Roberto Matta
Located in Roma, IT
T'ou't se tient is a print realized by the Chilean artist Roberto Sebastian Matta (1911-2002). This color lithograph on wove paper, was edited by the French magazine "XXe Siécle",...
Lithograph
original lithograph
By Roberto Matta
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original lithograph. Printed in Paris by Mourlot and published by Pierre à Feu and Maeght Editeur for the Marcel Duchamp / André Breton project Surréalisme en 1947. Issued in...
Lithograph
"T'ou't se tient" original lithograph
By Roberto Matta
Located in Henderson, NV
Medium: original lithograph. Issued in 1975 for XXe Siecle (issue no. 45), published in Paris by San Lazzaro. Sheet size 12 1/8 x 9 1/2 inches (310 x 240mm). Not signed.
Lithograph
Centre Noeuds (Sabatier 393), Roberto Matta
By Roberto Matta
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Roberto Matta (1912-2002) Title: Centre Noeuds (Sabatier 393) Year: 1974 Edition: 38/125, plus proofs Medium: Etching on Arches paper Size: 23.875 x 17.5 inches Inscription: ...
Etching
Italian design brand Paradisoterrestre has reissued a malleable piece of furniture by the famed 20th-century painter.
Through collage, painting and printmaking, the artist foregrounded Black life in America in revolutionary new ways.
