| Matta was born in Santiago de Chile of French, Spanish and Basque blood. He studied architecture, graduating in 1931. In 1936 he moved to Paris and worked in Le Corbusier's architecture office. He met with the leading surrealists, including André Breton and Dali, to whom he was introduced by the poet Frederico Garcia Lorca, and began painting seriously, gaining a reputation as a member of the surrealist movement and exhibiting at the International Surrealist Exhibition in 1938. When war began, he went to New York with Max Ernst and Peggy Guggenheim, together with André Masson and Wilfredo Lam, and continued his painting career. After the war he returned to Europe, first living in Rome then in Paris where he remained. Matta was also well known as a printmaker and developed a unique style in his graphic works. His etchings with aquatint and his lithographs retain the luminescence typical of his oil paintings. His work is exhibited in all major museums of modern art world-wide.
The surrealist poet and critic Patrick Waldberg wrote "Matta, whose equal surrealism was never to find again". |
