Matta L'impossible de l'un et de l'autre 1943 oil on canvas 20 x 25 in. (50.8 x 63.5 cm) Titled "L'impossible de l'un et de l'autre" on the reverse stretcher. This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Germana Matta.
Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Collection of María Martins, São Paulo Thence by descent to Private Collection Sotheby's, New York, Latin American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Part II, November 16, 1994, lot 209 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner Catalogue Essay L’impossible de l’une et de l’autre, 1943 is an amalgamation of concepts that embodies Matta’s innovative brand of Surrealism, which ultimately contributed to the expansion of the international Surrealist movement as well as the development of American Abstract Expressionism, greatly influencing artists such as Robert Motherwell Jackson Pollock and Arshile Gorky After initially studying architecture in Chile, followed by a brief period of working in Le Corbusier's Paris Atelier in 1935, Matta turned to a new form of artistic expression. Living in Paris and interacting with a number of the Surrealist artists working there, Matta’s early drawings already evinced a deep understanding of the Surrealist objective: to create a liaison between the world of dreams and the waking state. As his drawings evolved, he demonstrated a lucid understanding of landscapes derived from the geometry of forms. More importantly, the iconography he developed during this period evinced stunning introspective compositions that allow viewers to discover the imagery on their own terms. It was precisely these compositions that impressed the leading Surrealists of that time, such as Gordon Onslow Ford, Salvador Dalí Yves Tanguy Joan Miró and Marcel Duchamp André Breton was particularly enthusiastic about Matta’s drawings. Not only did Breton purchase two of Matta’s early works on paper, but he would later include Matta’s work in the famous 1938 Exposition Internationale du Surréalism in Paris. When Minotaure published their review of the exhibition in 1939, Breton declared Matta as the most important emerging Surrealist artist of the time. However, the eruption of World War II soon forced Matta, as well as many of his peers, to flee from Europe in search of less turbulent places to live and work. In 1939 Matta settled in New York, where he further developed his unique brand of Surrealism, soon creating a sensation in the art world. Matta titled the works from this period Psychological Morphologies because they represent a depiction of the artist’s psyche as landscape, full of swirling forms tumbling and crashing through space. Matta based these painting on the technique of automatism, an experimental method used by other Surrealists of the time, where it was believed that the artist's unconscious hand would move faster than the mind could think, and thus the artist's thoughts would spontaneously flow onto the canvas. This development coincided with the fact that Matta, who had previously focused on drawing, had recently begun painting thanks to his colleague Gordon Onslow Ford. At this time Matta also developed a personal technique whereby he applied small quantities of color next to each other at the edge of his palette knife and then mixed them in many unpredictable ways with extremely rapid brushstrokes. This first stage was completed fairly quickly, at which point he would begin to further develop the composition resulting in remarkably unique surface quality to his paintings. Another pivotal characteristic of Matta’s work is found in the way the artist achieves a background and foreground that are spatially interchangeable, as exemplified in the present lot. When standing in front of this magnificent painting, the viewer is confronted by a feeling of movement because the foreground appears to metamorphose into the background and vice versa. Through his delicately transparent veils and clouds of petrol blue and soft white, Matta has achieved a continuous sense of change and transformation within a static surface, a remarkable feat for a painter. This painting likewise evinces Matta’s concept of infinite space as well as an exploration of how our existence i
Matta L'impossible de l'un et de l'autre 1943 oil on canvas 20 x 25 in. (50.8 x 63.5 cm) Titled "L'impossible de l'un et de l'autre" on the reverse stretcher. This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Germana Matta.
Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Collection of María Martins, São Paulo Thence by descent to Private Collection Sotheby's, New York, Latin American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Part II, November 16, 1994, lot 209 Acquired at the above sale by the present owner Catalogue Essay L’impossible de l’une et de l’autre, 1943 is an amalgamation of concepts that embodies Matta’s innovative brand of Surrealism, which ultimately contributed to the expansion of the international Surrealist movement as well as the development of American Abstract Expressionism, greatly influencing artists such as Robert Motherwell Jackson Pollock and Arshile Gorky After initially studying architecture in Chile, followed by a brief period of working in Le Corbusier's Paris Atelier in 1935, Matta turned to a new form of artistic expression. Living in Paris and interacting with a number of the Surrealist artists working there, Matta’s early drawings already evinced a deep understanding of the Surrealist objective: to create a liaison between the world of dreams and the waking state. As his drawings evolved, he demonstrated a lucid understanding of landscapes derived from the geometry of forms. More importantly, the iconography he developed during this period evinced stunning introspective compositions that allow viewers to discover the imagery on their own terms. It was precisely these compositions that impressed the leading Surrealists of that time, such as Gordon Onslow Ford, Salvador Dalí Yves Tanguy Joan Miró and Marcel Duchamp André Breton was particularly enthusiastic about Matta’s drawings. Not only did Breton purchase two of Matta’s early works on paper, but he would later include Matta’s work in the famous 1938 Exposition Internationale du Surréalism in Paris. When Minotaure published their review of the exhibition in 1939, Breton declared Matta as the most important emerging Surrealist artist of the time. However, the eruption of World War II soon forced Matta, as well as many of his peers, to flee from Europe in search of less turbulent places to live and work. In 1939 Matta settled in New York, where he further developed his unique brand of Surrealism, soon creating a sensation in the art world. Matta titled the works from this period Psychological Morphologies because they represent a depiction of the artist’s psyche as landscape, full of swirling forms tumbling and crashing through space. Matta based these painting on the technique of automatism, an experimental method used by other Surrealists of the time, where it was believed that the artist's unconscious hand would move faster than the mind could think, and thus the artist's thoughts would spontaneously flow onto the canvas. This development coincided with the fact that Matta, who had previously focused on drawing, had recently begun painting thanks to his colleague Gordon Onslow Ford. At this time Matta also developed a personal technique whereby he applied small quantities of color next to each other at the edge of his palette knife and then mixed them in many unpredictable ways with extremely rapid brushstrokes. This first stage was completed fairly quickly, at which point he would begin to further develop the composition resulting in remarkably unique surface quality to his paintings. Another pivotal characteristic of Matta’s work is found in the way the artist achieves a background and foreground that are spatially interchangeable, as exemplified in the present lot. When standing in front of this magnificent painting, the viewer is confronted by a feeling of movement because the foreground appears to metamorphose into the background and vice versa. Through his delicately transparent veils and clouds of petrol blue and soft white, Matta has achieved a continuous sense of change and transformation within a static surface, a remarkable feat for a painter. This painting likewise evinces Matta’s concept of infinite space as well as an exploration of how our existence i
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
