Roberto Matta

Roberto Matta first married Patricia Echaurren. The couple had a son named Pablo. Patricia left him for Pierre Matisse, son of the famed artist Henri Matisse.

He then married American artist Anne Clark. They had twin sons, Sebastian and Gordon Matta-Clark. While Gordon grew up to be a well-known artist, Sebastian died early in life.

After his marriage to Anne Clark was annulled, Matta married for the third time. The marriage produced two children; Federica and Ramuntcho Matta. While Federica became a well known artist Ramuntcho established himself as a director..

Roberto Matta was born on November 11, 1911 in Santiago, Chile, into a family of Basque, Spanish and French descent. His father, Don Roberto Matta Echaurren, was a well to do landowner. His mother’s name was Mercedes Yanez.

Roberto demonstrated a flair for creativity from an early age. He often built stages, complete with curtains and backdrops and gathered his cousins to perform on it. Realizing his artistic talents, his parents encouraged him to study architecture.

Roberto had his early education at French Jesuit College of the Sacred Heart. Next, he enrolled at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, where he studied architecture and interior designing. He passed out from there in 1931 with a degree in architecture.

After completing his studies, Roberto spent some time travelling from Peru to Panama, making innumerable sketches of what he saw. Finally, he travelled to England as a merchant marine. From there, he went to Paris.

Roberto reached Paris in 1933. There he took employment under the renowned architect and city planner Le Corbusier. During the course of his service, he came in contact with many renowned painters and their works. He soon began to gather interest in painting. Initially, his works were mainly figurative.

Matta’s career as a surrealist painter took off from 1938. This was the year when he switched to oil painting and took part in the International Exhibition of Surrealism, held at Beaux Art Gallery in Paris.

In 1939, Matta migrated to the United States of America. There he chose New York as his base and got acquainted with many budding artists like Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell and Arshile Gorky, introducing them to his technique of ‘automatic painting’, which in later years gave rise to Abstract Expressionism.

In 1940, Matta held his first solo exhibition in New York at Julien Levy Gallery. In 1941, he created his famous painting, ‘Invasion of the Night’. It gave an insight into his future works. In 1942, his works were displayed in ‘Artist in Exile’, an exhibition held at the Pierre Matisse Gallery.

On coming back to Paris in 1948, Matta found his friends less welcoming. It is believed that Matta had an affair with painter Ashile Gorky’s wife Mougouch. When Gorky committed suicide in July 1948, most surrealist artists, including André Breton, blamed it on this affair and consequently, expelled him from the group.

However, the incident had little effect on his career. By this time, he had become quite famous and his works now reflected the sense of dislocation and anxiety of post-World War II period. Yet, he left Paris in 1950 and went to live in Rome.

He created A 4 x 24 meter mural entitled ‘The First Goal of the Chilean People’ in honor of the socialist reform in Chile under Salvador Allende. Although the mural was covered with 16 coats of paint during the subsequent military regime of Auguste Pinochet, it has now been restored at the cost of $43,000.