At the request of art critic Nicholas Calas, seven Surrealist artists collaborated on a print portfolio published by Brunidor Editions, in New York, whose director was Robert Altmann. The artists were Max Ernst, Stanley William Hayter, Wifredo Lam, Matta, Joan Miró, Kurt Seligmann, and Yves Tanguy. The etchings were printed in Hayter’s Atelier 17, while the lithographs were pulled in the studio of Alfred Jones.
Calas’ introduction to the portfolio turned on the age-old controversy between line and color, in which line or form is seen as relating to thought, while color or light is considered pertinent to emotion. Excerpts from his essay, entitled "Saper Vedere" (To Know How to See), are given in italics in the labels accompanying each of the prints from the portfolio, all of which are exhibited here. Calas describes not only what these artists "see" with their imaginations, but also what he as a critic "sees" as he interprets the inherent meanings of these prints.
University of Michigan Museum of Art director Jean Paul Slusser in 1947 showed himself to be in the vanguard of contemporary trends in his recommendation that this portfolio be acquired in the very year it was published.
. . . the humor in Matta’s cartoon is of the cruellest kind, based as it is on the realization of the incongruity of a situation which is tragic rather than comic. It is the story-portrait of the narcissist wounded in his pride, of the dandy admiring his wound; it is the drama of isolation portrayed on a cross, now situated in the stratosphere.
Matta studied architecture in his native Chile, moving in 1933 to Paris, where he was a draftsman in the studio of the architect Le Corbusier. In the mid-1930s he went to Madrid, where met Dalí and Breton. His earliest Surrealist works evince his interest in automatism, a procedure that he later shared with artists such as Gerome Kamrowski and Jackson Pollock after he immigrated to the United States in 1939. In 1944 Duchamp influenced his turn from biomorphism to geometry. In reaction to World War II, images of machines, automata, and the deformed human body entered his work.
Matta’s lithograph in The Brunidor Portfolio is also known as Strange Situation (Open Cube [cube ouvert]).
Label copy from exhibition "Dreamscapes: The Surrealist Impulse," August 22 - October 25, 1998
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
At the request of art critic Nicholas Calas, seven Surrealist artists collaborated on a print portfolio published by Brunidor Editions, in New York, whose director was Robert Altmann. The artists were Max Ernst, Stanley William Hayter, Wifredo Lam, Matta, Joan Miró, Kurt Seligmann, and Yves Tanguy. The etchings were printed in Hayter’s Atelier 17, while the lithographs were pulled in the studio of Alfred Jones.
Calas’ introduction to the portfolio turned on the age-old controversy between line and color, in which line or form is seen as relating to thought, while color or light is considered pertinent to emotion. Excerpts from his essay, entitled "Saper Vedere" (To Know How to See), are given in italics in the labels accompanying each of the prints from the portfolio, all of which are exhibited here. Calas describes not only what these artists "see" with their imaginations, but also what he as a critic "sees" as he interprets the inherent meanings of these prints.
University of Michigan Museum of Art director Jean Paul Slusser in 1947 showed himself to be in the vanguard of contemporary trends in his recommendation that this portfolio be acquired in the very year it was published.
. . . the humor in Matta’s cartoon is of the cruellest kind, based as it is on the realization of the incongruity of a situation which is tragic rather than comic. It is the story-portrait of the narcissist wounded in his pride, of the dandy admiring his wound; it is the drama of isolation portrayed on a cross, now situated in the stratosphere.
Matta studied architecture in his native Chile, moving in 1933 to Paris, where he was a draftsman in the studio of the architect Le Corbusier. In the mid-1930s he went to Madrid, where met Dalí and Breton. His earliest Surrealist works evince his interest in automatism, a procedure that he later shared with artists such as Gerome Kamrowski and Jackson Pollock after he immigrated to the United States in 1939. In 1944 Duchamp influenced his turn from biomorphism to geometry. In reaction to World War II, images of machines, automata, and the deformed human body entered his work.
Matta’s lithograph in The Brunidor Portfolio is also known as Strange Situation (Open Cube [cube ouvert]).
Label copy from exhibition "Dreamscapes: The Surrealist Impulse," August 22 - October 25, 1998
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Matta provided this plate for L’Extrême Occidental by writer Gherasim Luca; other artists contributing etchings were Jean (Hans) Arp, Victor Brauner, Max Ernst, Jacques Hérold, Wifredo Lam, and Dorothéa Tanning. The plates were printed in the Atelier Georges Visat in Paris. The work was published by Editions Meyer in Lausanne.
Label copy from exhibition "Dreamscapes: The Surrealist Impulse," August 22 - October 25, 1998
Inscription
Signed in pencil, l.r.: Matta Numbered, l.l. corner: 64/125 Watermark: ...hes (Arches)
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Matta’s skillful gradation of color, manipulation of the aquatint grain, and control of the biting of the plate produce luminous, almost phosphorescent, tonal passages suggesting a cosmic realm of inchoate matter and unfathomable depths. The whirling lines give the impression of motion and energy. Some of the darker lines were bitten so deeply in the etching process that they embossed the sheet, as is especially noticeable on the verso of the print.
This print was produced in the Atelier Georges Visat, Paris.
Label copy from exhibition "Dreamscapes: The Surrealist Impulse," August 22 - October 25, 1998
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
This print is one of two plates that Matta created for a book of poetry by Alain Bosquet (born 1919). Other plates in the volume were made by Max Ernst, Jacques Hérold, Wifredo Lam, and Dorothéa Tanning. The plates were printed in the Atelier Georges Visat in Paris. The book was published by Editions Galerie Diderot in Paris.
The gesticulating, seated figures in Matta’s print are reminiscent of both genitalia and machines.
Label copy from exhibition "Dreamscapes: The Surrealist Impulse," August 22 - October 25, 1998
Inscription
Signed, in pencil, l.r. below print on blue paper: Matta Edition, in pencil, l.l.: 51/56 On mat: Matta: Seated figure, Color etching. From series, "Paroles Peintes," 1959
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
