Matta Echaurren, Roberto Sebastián Antonio

Matta Echaurren, Roberto Sebastián Antonio (1911-2002), Chilean-born painter of Basque descent, whose Surrealist-inspired works illustrate a dream world of modern technological civilization. His paintings, such as Eros Precipitate (1944, Museum of Modern Art, New York), are peopled with strange hybrid automatons and insect-like creatures. From 1939 to 1948 Matta lived in New York, where he knew André Breton, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, and André Masson, and where he had a decisive influence on the work of Arshile Gorky and the creation of Abstract Expressionism. He trained as an architect in Santiago, and under Le Corbusier in Paris in 1934-1937. He turned to painting that same year, and became a friend of Marcel Duchamp. He became a French citizen but eventually made his home in Italy.