Art Moment #3 Addendum: Influences and Second Acts
Roberto Matta, 2000, N’ou’s autres, a very young 89 These past few weeks of working on illustrations for Santosh Shrestha's book "The Color of Life", have been particularly thought-provoking in terms of revisiting old influences and old terrain. When I was 17 or so, I grew increasingly interested in the later works of Ernst and Tanning and began to Max Ernst, Heavenly Army, 1970 appreciate the animistic elements in Wilfredo Lam. Later, Rufino Tamayo would cast a heavier spell and the throughline has pretty much been Roberto Matta. I remember my art history teacher Pat Zeitoun, a terrific painter in her own right, opined at me, "well, you know Matta's not a surrealist"; I was totally baffled why she'd state something that 1) I and everyone else already knew and 2) so what? I loved Pat and she was a funny, enthusiastic instructor but that always lingered in the background like a koan. I didn't have any deep reply for her then. I just shrug...