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Chilean painter and draughtsman, Matta was educated at the Sacré Coeur Jesuit College and at Catholic University of Santiago (1929-31). In 1933 he moved to Paris where he worked at Le Corbusier's studio. In 1936, in London, he worked with Walter Gropius and Laszló Moholy-Nagy who, to some extent, influenced his work. At this time, Roberto Matta concentrated essentially on drawing whose vitality attracted the attention of the Surrealists and André Breton invited him to take part in the International Exhibition of Surrealism in 1938. His first one-man show, at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York, was considered one of the high points of Surrealism by Breton; the originality of the works causing a tremendous impact on the American Abstract Expressionists. Nevertheless, this success was immediately put in question by the American critics and Matta was finally expelled from the Surrealist group in 1948. It could be said that, generally, Matta's work was influenced by Picasso, Duchamp, Kandinsky or even architectural and engineering designs, science fiction illustration and comic strips. Matta's strictly abstract painting, with elements of psychic automatism, had a strong influence on Abstract Expressionism, particularly Gorky and Motherwell.

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