Roberto Sebastian Matta *

(Santiago, Chile 1911–2002 Civitavecchia, Italy)
Désobéissance, 1959, signed and titled, oil on canvas, 118 x 146.5 cm, framed
Provenance:
Alexandre Iolas Collection, Paris
Ira von Fürstenberg Marinotti Collection
Studio Sant’Andrea, Milan
Galleria Il Mappamondo, Milan (label and stamp on the reverse)
Galleria Levi, Milan (label on the reverse)
Galleria Bonaparte, Milan (label on the reverse)
European Private Collection

This work is registered in the Archivio generale dell’Opera di Matta, Tarquinia and is accompanied by photo-certificate of authenticity.

The present work by Roberto Matta, from 1959, is a masterpiece of kinetic energy and spatial complexity. We are dealing with a kind of reverse synesthesia.

Strictly speaking, it is not just a picture to be looked at, but one that can almost be heard. 1959 is also the year in which Miles Davis revolutionised jazz with modalism on the album Kind of Blue. In parallel, Matta seems to have painted a form of absolute improvisation. The yellow picture plane vibrates with a visual cacophony that organizes itself almost intuitively. Structures appear like sound-absorbing panels, signs spring forth like materialised saxophone keys, and lines trace the path of a suddenly resounding tone. This invisible architecture challenges the certainty of our gaze. Is it a jazz concert or the projection of an inner landscape? The work offers no definitive answer but compels us to follow the rhythm of its gradual materialisation.