Being With (Etre Avec)
1946
Surrealism
Oil on canvas
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

‘Being With (Etre Avec)’ is one of Matta’s ‘Social Morphology’ works and represents a direct response to the horrors of WW2. Matta’s expression in the menacing mechanical contraptions and the contorted, violated humanoid figures reflects his deep dismay.

Roberto Matta
Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Modern Art
Born: 11 November 1911, Santiago, Chile
Nationality: Chilean
Died: 23 November 2002, Civitavecchia, Italy

Matta was one of Chile’s best-known artists. He is a seminal figure of the abstract expressionist and surrealist art of the 20th -century

Etre Cible Nous Monde
1958
Surrealism
Oil on canvas
Private Collection

‘Etre Cible Nous Monde’ (Our Earth is a Target) exemplifies Matta’s work of the mid-1950s with a cosmic landscape dominated by a machine. The imagery and title suggest the paranoia and fear of the atomic age

Roberto Matta
Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Modern Art
Born: 11 November 1911, Santiago, Chile
Nationality: Chilean
Died: 23 November 2002, Civitavecchia, Italy

Matta was one of Chile’s best-known artists. He is a seminal figure of the abstract expressionist and surrealist art of the 20th -century