Covent Garden, 1977

Roberto Matta was an artist from Chile who was first involved in the Surrealist movement and was an early mentor to those who would follow the Abstract Expressionism style. Matta was educated as an architect and interior designer at the Sacré Coeur Jesuit College and the Catholic University of Santiago. Once he graduated, he entered into the Merchant Marines which allowed him to travel to different parts of Europe. It is believed that this early travel inspired him for much of his artwork later on, especially when he was exposed to Picasso's Guernica and was introduced to the famous Marcel Duchamp. In 1938 Roberto Matta began painting. His first oil landscape was completed in Brittany. It was called Cruxificion and was considerably more socially and politically charged than other Surrealist works. In fact, the controversial matter of which Roberto Matta added to his paintings was often considered not to truly follow the movement as others did. He was actually expelled by the Surrealists in 1947. Cruxificion, which was oil on canvas, was created using the practice of automatism, where the artist is more spontaneous in what they put in their work. Roberto Matta is still best known for Cruxificion probably because of its abstraction and foray into the complex world of the human mind. Later in Matta's career he moved away from the Surrealist style and began what he called his "Social Morphologies". These were emotional and echoed the political strife that was going on throughout the world. They often pictured machines in a constant battle with spaces and planes that were quite ambiguous. He was later invited back by the Surrealists but decided to continue on his own path and focus on his unique style. He is still known best for his incorporation of social ills into his artworks when others were choosing to focus on less controversial subjects