Acquired from the artist circa 1950s
Ruth Moskin Fineshriber, New York
Sale: Christie's, New York, Latin American Sale, May 31, 2007, lot 26, illustrated in color
Private Collection, New York

This work has been examined under glass. The work is ready to hang and is in very good condition considering its age. Artist pinholes are present in all four corners of the paper. The medium is stable. Some overall yellowing of the paper has occurred; however, this is more than likely due to age and time.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

My cultural formation began in Paris in 1937 when I met Matta, by chance, in a party at the small hotel he used to stay. During dinner, we spoke about architecture and the projects he was working on at the le Corbusier atelier. After dinner he invited me to his room where I discovered a group of passionate color pencil drawings pinned on the walls: absolutely extraordinary landscapes, populated by battered nudes, strange architectures and vegetation...When we met again, the idea of a whole new art was born. (Gordon Onslow Ford)

In the fall of 1938, Matta presented Breton and the Surrealist group his theory on a new art concept: the Psychological Morphology. In essence,𝔍 Matta proposed a vision of the world, a new cosmology based on pure physics in which the material world 💫as we perceive it is a continuum of internal, imperceptible energies that are made "visible" by “environmental accidents,” or interruptions.

Another one of Matta's original ideas was the notion that the visual representation of the morphology of an object should be complete in its appearance from birth to death (a flower-turned-seed-turned-tree until its decay.) Since represent💝ing a material transformative process seemed impossible, Matta chose to picture the world as a mind game, as a visual shortcut with clues to help us grasp his ideas about reality.

Such is the case of this drawing, executed in the summer of 1939 in Chemilieu, a village overlooking the Rhone River in Southern France. It was here where Matta, Onslow Ford, Breton, and Tanguy spent the summer together in a large house. Ford remembers those days:  “As we walked the countryside, Breton, as a great admirer of Freud, turned every stone to see what was underneath, Matta´s magnifying glass looked at leaves and flowers while I watched the birds and scrutinized the horizon.” The present drawing perfectly exhibits the qualities illustrating Matta´s theories: the black pencil connects every element of the fluid composition, which could unconsciously represent the group of mutant friends in the landscape: a female body swirling around the sun seems connected to the entity on the center left. Three vertical elements: a flowering cactus, a nude and a mysterious character in red and blues interact in another bubble. Amorphous elements resulting perhaps from automatism litter the foreground. Color is used as an indication, an accent tool to help define the celestial energetic lines and, to use Matta´s exact words, to define the environmental accidents: “All forms are the graphic result of the adaptation of flowing internal energies to the obstacles created by the 🍬environment.” The mysterious explanation, the cryptic message, the confounding representation, all this is pure Matta, thಌe visionary forever confronting our certainties.