Roberto Matta

ROBERTO MATTA (Santiago, Chile, 1911 – Civitavecchia, Italy, 2002).
“Fou-Rieuse,” 1972.
Color etching and aquatint on Arches paper, print no. 38/100.
Signed and numbered in pencil.
Published by Atelier Georges Visat, Paris.
Bibliography: Roland Sabatier, Matta. Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre gravé (1943–1974), Éditions Sonet-Visat, Stockholm–Paris, 1975, p. 119, no. 288.
Measurements: 16.5 x 8.5 cm (print); 40.5 x 30 cm (frame).

Created in 1972, this print belongs to Roberto Matta’s mature body of graphic work, characterized by the transformation of anthropomorphic figures into fantastical organisms of marked expressiveness. The composition features several creatures with distorted anatomies, rendered through dark lines and sinuous forms against a background of reddish and brownish tones. The grainy texture of the aquatint and the contrast between light and shadow intensify the scene’s unsettling nature, while the title, with its humorous undertones, introduces a playful element characteristic of the artist’s surrealist universe.

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.