Matta-Duchamp

what is just seen. Matta uses the term “graphic” in opposition
to “plastique”, plastic, for which there is no useful
English equivalent in this context. “To call something
graphic is to say it is not, to use the more common French
term, plastique, which implies a modelling of form and
volume”. 31 “Les arts plastiques” are effectively work in
three dimensions, including sculpture. Matta probably
therefore intends simply depiction in two dimensions.
But certainly line becomes crucial as an independent element
in his paintings following the soft, glowing colours
and interpenetrations of space and volume in the Psychological
Morphologies (1939), Morphology of Desire
(1938), Inscape (1939), and other works of that time
such as the Fabulous Racetrack of Death (Instrument
very dangerous for the eye) (1939)
There are contradictions which co-exist: “The co-psychology
of contraries in the same idea-object remain
pulsating without deformation in a psychological morphology.”
32 Matta forces effects and things different in
kind to co-exist (“from point-volume to moment-eternity,
from attraction-repulsion to past-future, from lightshade
to matter-movement”) 33 . This is some ways easier
31. Briony Fer “Networks: Graphic Strategies from Matta to Matta-Clark”
Transmission: The Art of Matta and Gordon Matta-Clark San Diego
Museum of Art 2006 p.38
32. Ferrari p. 218
33. ibid.
( 41 )