As part of its session dedicated to jewellery and artists' jewellery, the PIASA auction house is proud to propose for sale a piece realized at the beginning of the 1990s by the Chilean painter Roberto Matta.
It is at the foothills of the Andes Cordillera, in Santiago de Chile, that Roberto Matta was born on November 11, 1911. He began studying architecture there before abandoning his studies and settling in France in 1933. He took advantage of his presence in Europe to multiply his encounters: the architect Le Corbusier in Paris, the famous designer Alvar Aalto in Finland, the writer Federico Garcia Lorca in Spain and the sculptor Henry Moore in London.
On the advice of Salvador Dali, he went to see André Breton. As a member of the surrealist magazine Minotaure, the artist wrote texts devoted to architecture and openly opposed the rationalism advocated by Le Corbusier.
At this time, Matta's painting was the scene of experiments of all kinds, reminiscent of the automatic writing processes that were very much in vogue at the time.
Faced with the sound of German boots, Roberto Matta decided to cross the Atlantic. He settles in New York. Six months after his arrival, the artist exhibited the fruit of his work at the Julien Levy Gallery, a major centre of the European surrealist diaspora.
Passionate about science, Matta is interested in relativistic physics. At that time, his works were influenced by it since the phosphorescent pigments he uses allow the chromatic rendering to vary according to the wavelength of the lighting.
Roberto MATTA (1911-2002)
"Totem, Séville"
Estimation : 4000 / 6000 €
In addition to teaching at the New School of Social Research, he received many artists in his studio, including Jackson Pollock. In September 1947, his work was the subject of a first monograph exhibition in Paris.
Excluded from the group of Surrealists by Breton, he returned to his native country. After General Pinochet's coup d'état, he left his native country for good and settled in Italy.
In parallel to his pictorial production, Roberto Matta made a number of jewels such as the one offered for sale on Thursday, March 12, 2020. This large pendant - like an important part of his work - is influenced by ancient cultures and traditions, here Aztec. With a lot of fantasy, the mythological bestiary unfolds amidst symbols to give this piece all its mystery. Produced in the early 1990s, "Totem, Seville" is estimated at between 4,000 and 6,000 euros.
