Roberto Matta (1911-2002) Untitled, 1970 Oil on canvas 40 x 37-3/4 inches (101.6 x 95.9 cm) Signed lower left ...
Auction amount: $57,500.00
Sold: Nov 17, 2021
Roberto Matta (Chilean, 1911-2002)
Paintings
Also known as: Roberto Matta Echaurren; Robert Matta
Birth Place: Santiago, Regi?n Metropolitana de (Chile)Biography:
Roberto Matta was a Chilean artist. He was known for practicing sculpture and painting, but he also explored other forms of expression, including video art and photography. He trained formally in architecture and was influenced by Andre Breton and Pablo Picasso and other European artists of the surrealist school.
He began with drawing but then changed his media to oil painting. His oil painting (and, later on, his sculpture) was seen as a commentary on the politics of the middle twentieth century. The images he created were a mix of organic-looking life forms and abstract forms and very often took on disturbing countenances. One of his early paintings is called Invasion of the Night and features strong colors and abstract representations. Another work, which was done later in his career, was called Elle Loge la Folie and represents more abstract images and plenty of light and dark coloring. One of his most famous works was The First Goal of the Chilean People, a mural he painted as a celebration of Salvador Allende’s rise to power in the country. The mural was defaced when Augusto Pinochet and his supporters overthrew the Allende government. Eventually the mural was restored.
During Matta’s life he lived in Chile, the United States, and Europe and also traveled a great deal on his native continent, capturing the images he saw there. He fathered three children, one of whom became an artist in his own right, and he passed away at the age of 91 in Italy.
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