Matta-Duchamp

young man, Matta is the most profound painter of his
generation.” 44
Matta’s painting developed fast during the early
1940s. Lightly indicated in Years of Fear (1941-2)
and in Locus Solus (1941-2) is a new interest in linear
structures that contrast with the organic turbulence of
paintings such as The Earth is a Man, which was the
culmination of the Psychological Morphologies. He creates
linear configurations with loops, conics and vanishing
points, spaces with multiple horizons, and transparent
screen-like planes. The lines can simultaneously
indicate representational systems such as perspective,
Herzian waves, weather formations, and any number of
metaphorical allusions. “In 1943 I passed, in my own
work, from a sort of burning fire, mineral lights kind of
thing, into a space that was described by geodesic lines
and waves…” 45
In L’Année 44 (1942), and Composition in Magenta:
The End of Everything (1943) rosy magenta and
black wash covers the canvas over which white lines
form geometrical shapes, rhomboids and curves, sometimes
resembling overlapping scales like the shutter of
44. Duchamp “Matta, Painter” from the Catalogue of the Collection of
the Société Anonyme, (1946) in The Writings of Marcel Duchamp ed. Sanouillet
and Peterson Da Capo Press, New York 1989 p.154
45. Interview 1966 with Peter Busa, Ferrari p 250
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