Editing Roberto Matta (section)

==Biography==
Matta was of [[Spanish people|Spanish]], [[Basque people|Basque]] and [[French people|French]] descent.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.udec.cl/~mariasmo/pintores/Roberto%20Matta.htm |title=Roberto Matta |access-date=2009-07-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090714022338/http://www2.udec.cl/~mariasmo/pintores/Roberto%20Matta.htm |archive-date=2009-07-14 }}</ref> Born in [[Santiago, Chile|Santiago]], he studied architecture and interior design at the [[Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile]] in Santiago, and graduated in 1935. That spring, he journeyed from Peru to Panama and completed surreal drawings of many of the geographical features he witnessed. He first encountered Europe while serving in the Merchant Marine after graduating.<ref>Dolin, Bryan. "Matta's Lucid Landscape." Surrealism and Architecture. By Thomas Mical. London: Routledge, 2005. 53-59. Print.</ref> His travels in Europe and the USA led him to meet artists such as [[Arshile Gorky]], [[René Magritte]], [[Salvador Dalí]], [[André Breton]], and [[Le Corbusier]].

[[File:RobertoMatta Three Figures 1958c..jpg|thumb|left|220px|Roberto Matta, ''Three Figures'', 1958c, [[M.T. Abraham Foundation]].]]
It was Breton who provided the major spur to the Chilean's direction in art, encouraging his work and introducing him to the leading members of the Paris Surrealist movement. Matta produced illustrations and articles for Surrealist journals such as ''[[Minotaure]]''. During this period he was introduced to the work of many prominent contemporary European artists, such as [[Pablo Picasso]] and [[Marcel Duchamp]].

The first true flowering of Matta's own art came in 1938, when he moved from drawing to the oil painting for which he is best known. This period coincided with his emigration to the [[United States]], where he lived until 1948. His early paintings, such as ''Invasion of the Night'', give an indication of the work he would continue, with diffuse light patterns and bold lines on a featureless background. This is also the period of the "[[Inscape (visual art)|inscape]]" series, and the closely related "psychological morphologies". Prof. Claude Cernuschi (see [[Boston College]] Matta exhibition external link below) writes, "Matta's key ambition to represent and evoke the human psyche in visual form was filtered through the writings of [[Freud]] and the psychoanalytic view of the mind as a three-dimensional space: the '[[Inscape (visual art)|inscape]]'." According to the essay on Matta in ''Crosscurrents of Modernism'' (see references below), the inscapes' evocative forms "are visual analogies for the artist's psyche" (p.&nbsp;241). During the 1940s and 1950s, the disturbing state of world [[politics]] found reflection in Matta's work, with the canvases becoming busy with images of electrical machinery and distressed figures. The addition of clay to Matta's paintings in the early 1960s lent an added dimension to the distortions.

In his art Matta creates new dimensions in a blend of organic and cosmic lifeforms (see [[biomorphism]]). He was one of the first artists to take this abstract leap.

[[File:ElleLogeLaFolie 1970.jpg|thumb|right|420px|''Elle Loge La Folie'', oil on canvas, 1970.]]
Matta's connections with Breton's surrealist movement were severed following a private disagreement concerning [[Arshile Gorky]] and his family. Matta was accused of indirectly causing Gorky's suicide (in response to Matta's relationship with the Armenian-American painter's wife). This led to his expulsion from the group, but by this time Matta's own name was becoming widely known. He divided his life between Europe and South America during the 1950s and 1960s, successfully combining the political and the semi-abstract in epic surreal canvases. Matta believed that art and poetry can change lives, and was very involved in the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. He was a strong supporter of the [[socialist]] government of president [[Salvador Allende]] in Chile.  A 4x24 meter mural of his entitled ''The First Goal of the Chilean People'', was painted over with 16 coats of paint by the military regime of [[Augusto Pinochet]] following their violent overthrow of [[Salvador Allende]] in 1973.  In 2005 the mural was discovered by local officials. In 2008 the mural was completely restored at a cost of $43,000, and it is displayed today in Santiago at the [[La Granja, Chile|La Granja]] city hall.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/roberto-matta-mural-emerges-from-pinochet-paintover-1.695038|title=Chile unveils mural thought destroyed by dictator Augusto Pinochet}}</ref>

Throughout his life, Matta worked with many different types of media, including ceramic, photography, and video production.<ref>"Système 88".</ref>

Matta died in [[Civitavecchia]], [[Italy]] on 23 November 2002, eleven days after his 91st birthday.

Matta was married twice: his first wife was Patricia Matta Echaurren (''née'' O'Connell), an American (who later married [[Pierre Matisse]]), and his second wife was Germana Ferrari.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/nov/25/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries|title=Obituary Roberto Matta|work=[[The Guardian]]|last=McNay|first=Michael|date=November 25, 2002|access-date=June 27, 2014|archive-date=October 6, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006204147/http://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/nov/25/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries|url-status=live}}</ref> He is the father of six children. Two died prematurely, leaving his creative legacy to artists [[Gordon Matta-Clark]] and his twin brother Sebastian,<ref>[http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/FEATURES/smyth/smyth6-4-04.asp artnet feature] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100713050039/http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/FEATURES/smyth/smyth6-4-04.asp |date=2010-07-13 }} retrieved October 23, 2009</ref> [[Ramuntcho Matta]], [[Federica Matta]],<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.federicamatta.com |title = Federica MATTA}}</ref> designer Alisée and artist and writer [[Pablo Echaurren]], whose surname was wrongly recorded at birth.