.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This work is sold with a certificate of authenticity signed by Germana Matta Ferrari and dated 3 April 2014.
Edwin and Lindy Bergman traveled to Europe for an extended trip in the late 1950s and whilst in Paris, Wifredo Lam introduced them to many artists including Roberto Matta and Alberto Giacometti. They would subsequently visit Matta on their trips to Paris and develop an enduring friendship.
The Horoscope is one of Robeto Matta's earliest drawings and was executed in 1937 during an important and intense period of innovation for the artist. An anthropomorphized form projects from the right side of the composition into an endless cosmos while brightly colored tree-like shapes project up from the ground and swirl into a forest or canopy that envelops the composition. These elongated colorful forms are evidence of the artist's interest and masterful development of biomorphism, and there is a magical energy to this drawing that emerges from the fluid and elongated forms and the deliberate use and application of color.
Chilean-born artist Roberto Matta first arrived in Europe in 1934, then just twenty-two years old. Originally trained as an architect, he soon began to work as a draftsman in Le Corbusier's atelier. It is no coincidence that Matta's first form of artistic production is on paper, perhaps inspired by Le Corbusier's utopian architecture studies for the unrealized project for the Ville Radieuse. Not long after arriving in Paris, Matta met André Breton who was instantly impressed by the young artist's drawings. Although Matta's influences can be traced to Tanguy, Dali and Duchamp, it was Breton's tutelage that lead him to first experiment and later successfully adopt the Surrealist technique of automatism. Breton saw an opportunity in Matta's lack of formal artistic education as he didn't have to "unlearn" conventional artistic training and could instead give himself entirely into the Surrealists' techniques. His training as an architect also allowed him to have a superior command and understanding of spatial renderings.
Matta's early drawings such as The Horoscope are replete with sinuous shapes suggesting biomorphic vegetation and cosmic visions. Drawing proved to be the perfect medium for the automatism so favored by the Surrealists and the most direct expression of the unconscious. "Automatism is a method of reading 'live' the actual function of thinking at the same speed as the matter we are thinking of" Matta declared (R. Matta, quoted by M. Sawin, "Matta: The Early Years, 1937 to 1959," in Roberto Matta: Paintings and Drawings, 1937-1959, Beverly Hills, 1997, n.p.). Already in these first drawings, such as The Horoscope. one can bear witness to the fascinating and unique style and approach to Surrealism that distinguished him from his contemporaries and would come to define his artistic legacy.
Edwin and Lindy Bergman traveled to Europe for an extended trip in the late 1950s and whilst in Paris, Wifredo Lam introduced them to many artists including Roberto Matta and Alberto Giacometti. They would subsequently visit Matta on their trips to Paris and develop an enduring friendship.
The Horoscope is one of Robeto Matta's earliest drawings and was executed in 1937 during an important and intense period of innovation for the artist. An anthropomorphized form projects from the right side of the composition into an endless cosmos while brightly colored tree-like shapes project up from the ground and swirl into a forest or canopy that envelops the composition. These elongated colorful forms are evidence of the artist's interest and masterful development of biomorphism, and there is a magical energy to this drawing that emerges from the fluid and elongated forms and the deliberate use and application of color.
Chilean-born artist Roberto Matta first arrived in Europe in 1934, then just twenty-two years old. Originally trained as an architect, he soon began to work as a draftsman in Le Corbusier's atelier. It is no coincidence that Matta's first form of artistic production is on paper, perhaps inspired by Le Corbusier's utopian architecture studies for the unrealized project for the Ville Radieuse. Not long after arriving in Paris, Matta met André Breton who was instantly impressed by the young artist's drawings. Although Matta's influences can be traced to Tanguy, Dali and Duchamp, it was Breton's tutelage that lead him to first experiment and later successfully adopt the Surrealist technique of automatism. Breton saw an opportunity in Matta's lack of formal artistic education as he didn't have to "unlearn" conventional artistic training and could instead give himself entirely into the Surrealists' techniques. His training as an architect also allowed him to have a superior command and understanding of spatial renderings.
Matta's early drawings such as The Horoscope are replete with sinuous shapes suggesting biomorphic vegetation and cosmic visions. Drawing proved to be the perfect medium for the automatism so favored by the Surrealists and the most direct expression of the unconscious. "Automatism is a method of reading 'live' the actual function of thinking at the same speed as the matter we are thinking of" Matta declared (R. Matta, quoted by M. Sawin, "Matta: The Early Years, 1937 to 1959," in Roberto Matta: Paintings and Drawings, 1937-1959, Beverly Hills, 1997, n.p.). Already in these first drawings, such as The Horoscope. one can bear witness to the fascinating and unique style and approach to Surrealism that distinguished him from his contemporaries and would come to define his artistic legacy.