Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Preview image of work. charcoal and pastel on paper, mounted on board, Untitled 12994

2003.11.53

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Untitled

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Artist

Roberto Sebastián Matta (Roberto Sebastián Antonio Matta Echaurren) (Chile, 1911 - 11/23/2002, Tarquinia, Italy)

Title

Untitled

Creation Date

ca. 1950

Century

mid-20th century

Dimensions

39 1/16 in. x 58 5/8 in. (99.22 cm x 148.91 cm)

Object Type

drawing

Creation Place

South America, Chile

Medium and Support

charcoal and pastel on paper, mounted on board

Credit Line

Bequest of William H. Alexander, in memory of his friends, Major and Mrs. J. Tarn McGrew, Paris, France

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

2003.11.53

The Chilean artist Roberto Matta had already established a network of friends among European modernist architects and Surrealist artists when he arrived on the New York scene in 1939. There he played a pivotal role in the inception of Abstract Expressionism. In 1948 he left New York and lived an itinerant life in Europe and South America. Matta often initiated a work by making uncontrolled marks and smudges on paper (or canvas) that freed his imagination. He then built a composition around these random gestures. Chance and improvisation were to him the means to express the other, unspeakable, even unthinkable side of existence.