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Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
Matta trained as an architect before moving to Paris in the 1930’s. There he became fascinated by the Surrealists and their quest to find a new direction in painting. He worked with Le Corbusier for two years before abandoning his work as an architect to devote himself full time to drawing and painting. During this time Matta met Picasso, Dali, Tanguy and others and as early as 1936 Matta explored Surrealist themes. One technique employed by the surrealists was automatism, the automatic drawing that is achieved by the unconscious movement of the artist’s hand working faster than the mind can think. The growth of automatism and Matta’s arrival in New York in 1939, at the outbreak of World War ll, helped influence the development of Abstract Expressionism in the United States. Matta’s colleagues in New York were Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky, Marc Chagall and Andre Breton. The artist returned to live in Paris until his death in 2002.Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
Matta came to New York in 1939 where he made his first prints. He was the youngest member of the Surrealist's Group during WWII in New York. "His method of making soft-ground color etchings resulted in some of the most vibrant surrealist prints" (Castleman, p.84)