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Roberto Sebastian Matta Echaurren, usually known
as Matta, is one of Chile's best-known painters. 
Born in Santiago on 11 November 1911, he was
initially an Interior decoration|interior
decorator, but became disillusioned with this
occupation and left for Europe in the mid 1930s. 
His travels led him to meet artists such as 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 Surrealism|Surrealist movement. Matta
produced illustrations and articles in the
Surrealist journal 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. His early
paintings, such as Invasion of the Night, give an
indication of the work he would continue, with
diffuse light patterns and bold lines on a
featureless background. During the 1940s and
1950s, the disturbing state of world politics
found reflection in Matta's work, with the
canvases becoming busy with images of electrical
machinery and distressed figures. The addition of
clay to Matta's paintings in the early 1960s led
an added dimension to the distortions.

Matta's connections with Breton's Surrealist
movement were severed when a private disagreement
led to his expulsion from the group, but by this
time his own name was becoming widely known. He
divided his life between Europe and South America
during the 1950s and 1960s, successfully combining
the political and the semi-abstract in epic
surreal canvases.

Matta died in Civitavecchia, Italy, on 23 November
2002.

==References==
*Passeron, René (1984). The concise encyclopedia
of surrealism. Trans. J. Griffiths. Ware, UK:
Omega Books. ISBN 0-907853-28-5.

==External link==
*http://www.matta-art.com/ The Art of Matta