Roberto Matta

ROBERTO MATTA (Santiago, Chile, 1911 – Civitavecchia, Italy, 2002).
“L’arc obscur des heures,” 1975.
Print on paper. Eje, plate 64/125.
It shows slight creases and mild discoloration.
Measurements: 51 x 70 cm; 64 x 94 cm (frame).
This work belongs to *L’Arc obscur des heures* (The Dark Arch of Hours), one of Roberto Matta’s most representative print series, created in 1975. In it, the artist explores his unique surrealist universe through dreamlike compositions filled with biomorphic structures, undefined spaces, and constantly shifting forms.
The series reflects Matta’s interest in what he called “inscapes” or interior landscapes: representations of psychological space and the processes of the human mind, in which references to the subconscious, science, physics, and new conceptions of the universe converge.
Roberto Matta was a key figure in international Surrealism and an important link between the European avant-garde and American Abstract Expressionism. Initially trained as an architect, he settled in Paris, where he came into contact with André Breton and the Surrealist circle. During the 1940s, he developed an artistic language in New York that greatly influenced artists such as Arshile Gorky and Robert Motherwell. His career was recognized with major retrospectives at MoMA in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid—institutions that hold works by him in their collections.