(Santiago del Cile 1911 – Civitavecchia 2002)
Roberto Antonio Sebastián Matta Echaurren, known as Roberto Matta or Sebastiano Matta (Santiago de Chile, 1911 – Civitavecchia, November 23, 2002), was an architect and painter.
After completing his studies in architecture in Chile, in 1934 he moved to Paris where he worked with Le Corbusier and comes into contact with intellectuals such as Rafael Alberti and Federico García Lorca. He knows André Breton and Salvador Dalí and adheres to Surrealism paintings focused on developing psychological morphologies. At the beginning of World War II he flees to New York along with many other avant-garde artists. Here he exerts a decisive influence on some young artists such as Jackson Pollock and Arshile Gorky. In 1949 he moved to Rome and he will become an important link between abstract expressionism and the emerging Italian abstraction. Leaving Rome in 1954, he moved back to Paris, but he maintained a tight relationship with Italy until the end.
His works are exhibited in major museums around the world.
Roberto Matta and the Fourth Dimension - General Staff Building, St. Petersburg
Roberto Sebastian Matta. Forms of dream - Galleria d’arte maggiore, Bologna
Roberto Matta: 1940s – 1960s - Robilant + Voena, London
Roberto Matta: On the Edge of a Dream - Robilant + Voena, St. Moritz
Matta, Exposición De Obras De 1943 A 1999 - Galeria Artespacio, Santiago
Matta in the 1950s and 1960s - Pace Gallery, New York City, NY
Roberto Matta - Matta - Galerie Thessa Herold, Paris
Roberto Matta - The Freedom of Gesture - Boca Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL
The Surrealist Roberto Matta - Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens, West Palm Beach, FL
Gli Spazi Della Psiche E Del Mondo - Galleria Biasutti & Biasutti Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin
Matta, du surréalisme à l’histoire - Musée Cantini, Marseille
Matta. Fiktonen - Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden
Matta. Fiktionen - Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg
Oils, sculptures and mixed media - Galleria d'Arte Maggiore, Bologna
Roberto Matta: Arquitecto De La Imaginación - Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Oaxaca
Roberto Matta - Galerie Patrice Trigano, Paris
Matta. Sculptures - Maison de l'Amérique Latine, Paris
Matta: Centenario 11.11.11 - Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda, Santiago
100 años de Matta - Museo de la Memoria y de los Derechos Humanos, Santiago
Roberto Matta: A 100 años de su nacimiento - Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City
Matta100 - MNBA - Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes Santiago Chile, Santiago
Matta: A Centennial Celebration - Pace Gallery, New York City, NY
Matta 1911-2011 - Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Bilbao
Matta - IVAM - Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia
Dibujos - Galería Animal, Santiago
Pittura/scrittura Di Echaurren Roberto Sebastián Matta - Galleria Biasutti Giampiero, Turin
Latitudes, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Don Qui, Homage from Matta to Don Quixote - Instituto Cervantes - Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ
Don Qui, Homage from Matta to Don Quixote - Instituto Cervantes - Brasilia, Brasilia
Descubritorio Matta - MAVI - Museo de Artes Visuales, Santiago
Roberto Matta: What is the Object of the Mind? - El Sourdog Hex, Berlin
Matta - Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris
Don Qui - Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid (CBA), Madrid
Pinturas de los años 50 - Galería Animal, Santiago
Gravures - Roberto Matta - Galerie Renée Ziegler, Zurich Gravures: Roberto Matta, Galerie Renee Ziegler, Zurich, Switzerland (solo)
Roberto Matta, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, DC (solo)
Matta, Malingue, Paris, France (solo)
Matta: Making the Invisible Visible, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA (solo)
Matta 1938-1971, Galleria de'Foscherari, Bologna, Italy (solo)
Matta in America: Paintings and Drawings of the 1940s, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL (solo)
Matta: Oper Dal 1957 al 1993, Galleria Patrizia Poggi, Ravenna, Italy (solo)
Matta El Ano de los Tres 000, Fundacion Telefonica, Santiago, Chile (solo)
Matta, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (solo)
Borges Cultural Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina (solo)
Matta: Surrealism and Beyond, Haggerty Museum of Art, Chicago, IL (solo)
Roberto Matta: Paintings and Drawings 1937-1959, Galeria Lopez Quiroga, Mexico City, Mexico (solo)
Matta: Paintings and Drawings, Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
Matta: Re-generation, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida (solo)
Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
Transparency in the Art of the 20th Century, Musee des Beaux-Arts Andre Malraux, Le Havre, France
Matta: Engravings, Galeria Arte Actual, Santiago, Chile (solo)
Matta: Works from Chicago Collections, Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL (solo)
Crosscurrents of Modernism: Four Latin American Pioneers, Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Matta Exhibition: One verse 11-11-11, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile (solo)
Matta: Drawings 1937-1946, Acquavella Contemporary Art, New York, NY (solo)
Aspects of Modern Art in France, Galerie Daniel Malingue, Paris, France
Matta: Drawings 1937-88, Museum Bochum, Germany (solo)
Italy Matta: Matta in Italy, Palazzo Venezia, Rome, Italy (solo)
Matta: The Early Years, Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (solo)
The Logic of Hallucination [Drawings], Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (solo)
Artistic Collaboration in the Twentieth Century, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
60 Works: The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Graphics, American Academy of Rome, Rome, Italy (solo)
A New Spirit in Painting, Royal Academy of Art, London, UK
Hom'mere (Etchings), Kettle's Yard Gallery, Cambridge University, Cambridge, MA (solo)
Homage aux Pyrénées, Château de Castellnou, Castellnou (solo)
A Totemic World, Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, Andrew Crispo Gallery, New York, NY
Pastelli, L'Homme Descend du Signe, Galleria dell'Oca, Rome, Italy (solo)
Surrealism, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
The Early Years: A Selection of Paintings and Drawings from the Years 1939 - 1957, Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
Sebastian Matta/dipinti, disegni e incisioni 1957 - 1973, Galleria Schubert, Milan, Italy (solo)
In the Space of a Chilean Week, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Le Havre, France (solo)
Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturebesitz, Berlin, Germany (solo)
The Revolution is Architecture, Centre Culturel Municipal, Villeparisis, France (solo)
Painting in France 1900 - 1967, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Galeria Latinoamerica, Casa de las Americas, Havana, Cuba (solo)
Matta, Being with, Saint Denis, France
La Llave de los Campos, Galeria del Techo, Caracas, Venezuela
The Open Cube, Kunstmuseum, Lucerne, Switzerland (solo)
Sebastian Matta: Mostra Antologica in Bologna, Museo Civico, Bologne (solo)
Within the Easel Convention: Sources of Abstract-Expressionism, The Fogg Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Drawings, Pastels and Paintings, Allan Frumlin Gallery, Chicago, IL (solo)
Art Since 1950, American and International, Seattle World's Fair, Seattle, WA
Sculptures by Matta, Galerie du Dragon, Paris, France (solo)
15 Forms of Doubting, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (solo)
Retrospective, Stockholm, Sweden
50 Ans d'Art Moderne, Palais International des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (solo)
Matta of Chile, Pan American Union, Washington, DC (solo)
Designs by Matta, Galerie Nina Dausset, Paris, France (solo)
L'Oeuvre du XXe siècle, Peintures, Sculptures, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, France
Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK (solo)
40,000 Years of Modern Art, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK
Matta (Preface by Andre Breton), Galerie René Drouin, Paris, France (solo)
Fifty-Eighth Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture: Abstract and Surrealist American Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago,
Twelve Contemporary Painters, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
War and the Artist, Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, NY
Oils, Pencils and Paintings, Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York (solo)
Peggy Guggenheim's Collection of Paintings, Sculpture, Collages, Drawings, Objects and Photography...Pioneer Art Movement, Art of this Century Gallery, New York, NY
Tchelitchew, Matta and Walt Disney, Julien Levy Gallery, New York, NY
Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France