ROBERTO MATTA (1911-2002) Untitled, 1989 Chalk, colored pencil and graphite on paper Signed in pencil lower right Height 50 cm - Width 65 cm Provenance : Galerie de France (ref. AR d75) Exhibition : Art Asia Hong Kong November 18-22, 1993 (réf. 82C 0594) Born in Chile, Roberto Matta was an artist of the Surrealist movement. He began by studying architecture, then in 1933 gave up his career to travel in Europe. During his travels, he made friends with Le Corbusier, the poet Federico Garcia Loca, Alvar Aalto, Henry Moore and René Magritte. In 1937, when he was just twenty-five, Roberto Matta met the Surrealists, notably Salvador Dali and André Breton, who, on seeing some of his drawings, consecrated him as one of their own. "They said to me, "You're a surrealist!" I didn't even know what that meant..." A year later, the new Chilean recruit took part in the Exposition internationale du surréalisme organized by Breton, Paul Éluard, Duchamp and Man Ray at the Galerie des Beaux-arts. A free, intense and energetic spirit, Matta's unique style blends European Surrealism and American Abstract Expressionism. His fantastical illustrations explore the unconscious through methods of automatism, fluid perspective and rich color. "Only the unknown interests me, and I work for my own astonishment alone," he declares.