Art & Exhibitions
Gallery Hopping: An Overview of Roberto Matta at London’s Robilant + Voena
The exhibition of works by the Chilean artist spans 40 years of his career.
Amah-Rose Abrams
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Currently on view at the London branch of the gallery Robilant + Voena is a selection of paintings by Abstract Expressionist and Surrealist artist Roberto Matta spanning the 1940s up to the 1980s, tracking the artist’s work after he forged his signature style at the end of the 1930s.
The 12 paintings in the exhibition track Matta’s initially abstract work up to the 1980s, when his painting became more figurative.
The works made in the early 1940s,viewed through the lens of 2017, have a sci-fi like quality combining planetary compositions with abstract lines and shapes, which give the paintings a futuristic look.
Featuring important works—like Children’s Fear of Idols (1943) and Inscape (1943) to the Contrarian (1945)—this show explores both the themes and the visual experiments conducted by Matta, making this show a must for fans of the work of the Chilean artist.
Matta—one of Chile’s most famous artists and father of the legendary Gordon Matta-Clark—became involved with the French Surrealist group at the end of the 1930s, when he collaborated with the group in the French surrealist magazine Minotaure and worked with Max Ernst at Peggy Guggenheim’s New York gallery, Art of the Century.
“Roberto Matta: On the Edge of a Dream” is on view at Robilant + Voena, London, from March 3 – April 21, 2017.
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