Roberto Matta

Roberto Matta an American Painter



Roberto Matta was born on November 11, 1911 in Santiago, Chile. Matta was educated as an architect and as an interior designer at the Sacre Coeur Jesuit College and at the Catholic University of Santiago, from 1929-31. From 1933-34 he worked in Paris as a drafter for a famous architect named Le Corbusier. At the end of 1934 Matta visited Spain, where he met Federico Garcia Lorca, a poet/playwright, who through a letter, introduced Matta to Salvador Dali (surrealist). After meeting with Dali, Matta was encouraged to show some of his drawings to Andre Breton, another surrealist. Matta’s meeting with Dali and Breton strongly influenced his formation as an artist as well as connecting him to the Surrealist movement. In 1936 Matta worked in London with Walter Gropius and Laszio Moholy-Nagy (both architects). While Matta was employed by the architects of the Spanish Republican pavilion at the Paris International Exhibition. Matta was exposed to...