ROBERTO MATTA

(1911-2002)

Morphologie psychologique

Footnotes

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Germana Matta Ferrari.

Provenance
Mary Lawrence Tonetti Collection, Palisades, New York (a gift from the artist).
Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York.
Private collection, New York.
Sale: Christie's, New York, June 16, 1995, lot 26.
Private collection, US.
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, May 28, 2013, lot 10.
Acquired at the above sale by the previous owner; their sale, Christie's, New York, November 20, 2015, lot 28.
Acquired at the above sale by the late owner.


Even after architect Roberto Matta traded his drafting instruments for paintbrushes at the behest of Surrealists André Breton and Salvador Dalí in 1937, he refused the designation of painter. Instead, Matta, who believed his art had the power to make the invisible known, preferred the title of montreur ("puppet master"). Nowhere is this desire to bring visual form to the intangible more evident than in his series of Morphologies psychologiques. Morphology – the study of structures and transformations of form in all things living and nonliving – was a frequent inspiration to the Surrealists. Matta's concept of psychological morphologies merged Matta's familiarity of spatial architectural morphology with the Surrealist method of automatism, exploring the visual possibilities resulting from spontaneous movements of the hand and the endless possibilities of thought when freed from the control exercised by reason.

The subsequent series of Morphologies psychologiques paintings were Matta's attempt to visualize the innermost structures of consciousness, a dimensional space in which not only figures and objects, but space and time are seamlessly conflated. The present Morphologie psychologique work, executed by Matta in 1939, showcases this transformative space in which the unconscious flows freely onto the canvas, the swirling veils of color revealing the inner workings of the mind and its many realms. In this sense, Matta's Morphologies psychologiques were the artist's attempt at defining and visualizing human consciousness in a purely pictorial vocabulary. The undulating, hazy layers of translucent paint seem to move past the confines of the canvas and suggest a transformation of time, space, and thought – a transformation of oneself into an unexpected field of invisible enigma. For Matta, painting served as a means of expressing the inexpressible, writing that: "reality is a sequence of explosive convulsions self-organized as pulsating space in rotation under the beat of the rhythm. The eye as the agent of memory is a means to simplify" (quoted in G. Ferrari, Matta: Entretiens Morphologiques: Notebook No. 1, 1936-1944, London, 1987, p.70).

Painted in 1939, this work was executed at the height of Matta's mature artistic career. During the summer of 1939, at the precipice of World War II, Matta and many of his Surrealist comrades spent months working in the countryside near the Chemellieu home of art collector and Parisian avant-garde behemoth Gertrude Stein. It was during these months, away from the melee of everyday life, that Matta began work on his series of Morphologie psychologique paintings. Shortly after his time in the French countryside, Matta left the atrocities of war-ridden Europe behind and joined the mass exodus of European artists moving to New York in the fall of 1939. While Matta often struggled to articulate his vision and experience into words, the effects of this tumultuous time on the Chilean-born artist are not lost in this work's biomorphic forms. The disjointed, flesh-colored forms of paint at the top of the composition seem to resemble fingernails clawing at the canvas, leaving fractured forms and pools of dripping red paint in their wake. By no means a definitive representation, these small semblances of figuration illustrate Matta's highly complex pictorial imagery. A language of imagery that moved fluidly between the abstract and the figurative, the conscious and the unknown.

The present work was one of the first paintings produced by Matta upon his arrival in America in 1939. This breathtaking oil painting was created as a gift to New York native Mary Lawrence Tonetti. Tonetti, a prolific artist and sculptor in her own right, was a friend of Matta's and served as a great support to the artist throughout his time in New York. Brought up in a wealthy family against the backdrop of the Gilded Age, Tonetti defied expectations of what a female artist could accomplish. Learning the art of sculpture under the tutelage of August Saint-Gaudens, Tonetti's talent as a sculptor earned her the commission to create a statue of Christopher Columbus for the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. With the support of Mary Lawrence Tonetti, the energetic Matta found immediate success in New York. His painted representations of invented visual worlds appealed greatly to Americans, and the esteemed art dealer Julien Levy organized Matta's first solo exhibition the following spring. In the following years, Matta would go on to teach visual art and host lectures on the principles of Surrealism. Matta's teachings on automatic painting would go on to influence a new generation of modern artists across America, including Robert Motherwell and Jackson Pollock, both regular attendees of Matta's seminars. The present work, epitomizing Matta's artistic ingenuity and lasting influence, has been included in many seminal museum exhibitions across the United States.