Object number1955.7

Stokers of the Earth

Date1953

Artist Roberto Matta (Chilean, 1911-2002)

CultureChilean

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 46 7/8 x 67 7/8 in. (119.06 x 172.4 cm)
Framed: 47 7/8 x 68 3/4 x 1 5/8 in. (121.6 x 174.63 x 4.13 cm)

Credit LineGift of Philip C. Johnson

On View

On view

Period20th c

Classification(s)

Painting

CopyrightARS/ADAGP, Paris

BibliographyNobuyuki, Okabe, "Paris--New York; Modern Paintings in 19th and 20th Century Master Works from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College," (Japan: Yamagata Museum of Art) Cat. no. 66, p. 127

Vassar Exhibitions

Paris-New York: Modernist Painting in 19th and 20th century Masterworks from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College

Selections from the Permanent Collection (1990)

Exhibition HistoryJapan, Shimane Art Museum, "Paris--New York; Modern Paintings in 19th and 20th Century Master Works from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York," March 7 - May 11, 2008. Cat. no. 66, p 127.

Japan, Ishibashi Museum of Art, "Paris--New York; Modern Paintings in 19th and 20th Century Master Works from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York," May 17 - July 20, 2008. Cat. no. , p .

Japan, Yamagata Museum of Art, "Paris--New York; Modern Paintings in 19th and 20th Century Master Works from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York," July 30 - August 31, 2008. Cat. no. , p. .

Japan. Fuchu Art Museum, "Paris--New York; Modern Paintings in 19th and 20th Century Master Works from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York," September 6 - November 3, 2008. Cat. no. , p. .

Japan, Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum, "Paris--New York; Modern Paintings in 19th and 20th Century Master Works from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York," November 14 - December 14, 2008. Cat. , p. .

Label TextChilean born painter and writer Roberto Sebastian Antonio Matta Echaurren, commonly known as Matta, was a prominent figure in the Surrealist movement. He originally trained to be an architect and worked in the studio of Le Corbusier in France in the 1930s. During his two years there, he met Salvador Dali and began to shift his interests, rejecting rationalist principles and challenging Le Corbusier’s notion of architecture as a “machine for living.” Later Matta emigrated to the United States and influenced many of the Abstract Expressionist painters working in New York, including Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Matta adopted the Surrealist technique of automatic painting, in which artists seek to tap into their unconscious mind, inviting an element of chance into their work. He often stained his canvases with dye and allowed the shapes that emerged to guide the composition. “I don’t paint,” he once said of his process. “I see a cosmos in the (stained canvas). My point of departure is the stains.” One can imagine how this method might have led to the enigmatic, cartoonish figures and biomorphic forms in this painting, animated by graffiti-like outlines. Visually intense and tonally dark, this work illustrated Matta’s interest in the internal psyche and the tension between the emotional and the rational mind.

Terms

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