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148

Matta

Composizione (7 Luglio)

Estimate
$9,000 - 12,000
Lot Details
Pastel in colors, on wove paper, the full sheet, mounted to canvas on stretcher,
circa 1964-5
20 x 25 3/4 in. (50.8 x 65.4 cm)
signed in blue ink on a label affixed to the reverse, titled in pencil lower right.

Matta

Chilean | B. 1911 D. 2002
After graduating from university in Santiago in 1935 with a degree in architecture, Roberto Matta traveled to Europe where he met André Breton, the founder of the Surrealist movement in Europe. In 1938, he began painting and moved to the United States for ten years. During this period he sought to evoke the human psyche in his work, inspired by Freudian psychoanalysis. Matta's works became increasingly dominated by a socio-political element, which broke from the conventions of Surrealism.

Matta was also a seminal figure in Abstract Expressionism but broke away from this too to develop a highly personal artistic vision. His mature works blend abstraction with elements of figuration and fantastically-conceived, multi-dimensional space. He was heavily involved in the social movements of the 1960s and '70s and a strong supporter of Salvador Allende's socialist government.
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