Day 335 - Roberto Matta


March 30, 2023

Gallery 901 centers on surrealism. Its contents include canvases by Miro, Dali, Magritte, and Picasso, as well as one of the slender Brancusi sculptures meant to evoke a bird. None of it is easy for me, all enigmatic.  The most opaque is an enormous (perhaps 18 feet long and 9 feet high) 1946 painting by the Chilean artist Roberto Matta. I can’t figure out what’s going on.  The title - “Being With” - is no help either.

The caption is somewhat informative.  It notes that the painting depicts “a labyrinth of architectural structures seen from various perspectives” Maybe so - I’m more inclined to see industrial tools: a hoist, perhaps, or a saw. The caption also describes “contorted humanoid figures engaged in sex acts.”  I recognize circles denoting breasts; perhaps the blade-like objects protruding from some of the figures represent penises?

At first I had no idea what the artist was trying to say with the image. But I concluded that it's not a rational response but rather, the feelings the painting summons up that matter. It seems to me that Matta was trying to convey  a sense of profound disquiet, perhaps even repulsion and fear, and he succeeded. The palette of clashing oranges and reds evokes conflict and violence. Some of the figures have mouths that gape open, as if they are terrified; perhaps they are the victims of rape. The caption notes that Matta was distressed by the ravaged condition of the post-World Wara II world. “Being With” brings only horror, no comfort. I think of Sartre’s famous line, “Hell is other people” and am interested to learn that "No Exit" was written just two years before Matta painted this work.

 

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