By Carolina Lara
As part of the international celebration for the centenary of Roberto Matta’s birthday (Santiago de Chile, 1911-Tarquinia, Italy, 2002), ARTIUM Gallery and Chile Association of Painters and Sculptors (APECH) have organized an exhibition with more than 90 local artists, each of them displaying an unpublished work inspired in the life and work of this surrealist master, National Art Award 1990.
The exhibition (through March 31) is part of an APECH special program aimed at disseminating the work of our National Art and Literature Awards and supporting local creations. Sponsored bythe National Council of Culture and Arts, Homenaje a Roberto Matta (Tribute to Roberto Matta) exhibition puts together small-scale paintings and mixed techniques (50 per 50 centimeters), where you’ll discover a variety pictorial languages and strategies that can be worked out in the space of a picture, as well as author’s particular way of looking the architect and painter.
Among over 90 exhibitors, it counts on artists such as: Ulrich Welss, Jose Balmes, Jaime Cruz, Edwin Rojas, Victor Mahana, Sergio Lay, Teresa Ortuzar, Omar Gatica, Yto Aranda, Carmen Aldunate, Maria Jose Romero, Ruperto Cadiz, Alex Chellew, Ebe Bellange, Manuel Gomez Hassan, Antonella Gallegos, Soledad Vial, Claudia Adriazola, Alex Quinteros, Eduardo Vera, Valentina Arenas, Arnoldo Carvajal, Carola Ramirez, Constanza Villalba, Carmen Valle and Nieves Mc Auliffe. Other authors have joined, such as Mario Soro, Andres Gana, Francisco Salas, Claudia Wagemann, Cristian Faundez, Dora Aguila, Ebe Bellange, Geraldine Mac Kinnon, Mario Murua, Nelson Plaza, Pamela Contreras and Patricia Dezideri.
Matilde Perez is one of the outstanding artists who participate in the tribute exhibition. Chilean pioneer of kinetic art has worked inspired in the “Cubo abierto” (Open cube), picture painted in the 1960s where Matta tries to represent the multidimensional space, opening an exploration field in her work. That’s how the artist finds a link with the poetic art of geometry she has developed over 60 years. Her work in acrylics and bronze embodies a dialogue among art masters from the 20th century.
In addition to Homenaje a Matta, an exhibition will be held with representative engravings from different series and stages of this Chilean master’s production who joined the surrealism and was an international avant-garde.
Recently appointed architect, Matta migrated to the art epicenters in Europe, where he was in touch with authors such as Walter Gropius and Moholy-Nagy, Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali and Andre Breton. During his 40 years of exile in New York, he was one of the artists who inspired the abstract expressionism. He’s considered a link between surrealism and young artists from the school in New York such as Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky and William Baxiotes. The surrealist’s life and work can be defined in constant migration and experimentation. Matta made a multidimensional universe, with a repertory of paintings, engravings, sculptures and innovative experiences within the traditional languages and technological sphere. His images set connections with unfathomable spaces of unconsciousness, including fields such as science, philosophy, mythology from ancient American people, also considering the political contingency. In the 1950s, Matta lived in Rome and moved out to 1967 in Tarquinia, Italy, but he periodically travelled to Latin America and Chile. Myth of his origin or genius portent is the number coincidence in his birthday, 11-11-11, which he became a poetic element of his work.
APECH is union of Chilean artists founded in 1940 and its first president was sculptor Lorenzo Dominguez. Painter Camilo Mori succeeded him during 16 years. Alex Chellew, its present president, explains that Homenaje a Roberto Matta is part of a series of exhibitions organized some years ago, based on the life and work of National Awards and remarkable figures in the Chilean cultural history. “The objective is spreading the country’s artistic memory and encouraging the work of visual artists. Within this framework, we’ve held travelling and educative exhibitions paying tribute to Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, Camilo Mori, Enrico Bucci, Vicente Huidobro, Eduardo Barrios, and April will have Manuel Rojas”, he added.
ARTIUM Gallery counts on eight years of experience in the art market. Located in Alonso de Cordova neighborhood (Santiago-Chile), the very epicenter of local galleries, it has promoted exhibitions, special sales and collaborative projects with other institutions shedding light on the work of artists from different generations, national and international, including a variety of practices and trends.
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