Roberto Matta

Chilean painter and a seminal figure in 20th century abstract expressionist and surrealist art. In his art Matta created new dimensions in a blend of organic and cosmic lifeforms. He was one of the first artists to take this abstract leap. Matta worked with many different types of media, including ceramic, photography, and video production. 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. 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. Matta died in Civitavecchia, Italy on 23 November 2002. Link to Wikipedia biography