Condors and Carrion (Condors y carroña)
Roberto Matta
Chilean, 1911–2002
1941
In this pencil-and-crayon drawing, Matta assembles a surreal, suspended landscape of winged and organic forms to give visible shape to inner psychological and cosmic forces.
The paper feels like an airy void pierced by smoky smears, delicate architectural scribbles, fluttering biomorphic figures and small, jewel-like orbs whose pale color accents and fine lines create a tense, hovering stillness.
Created in 1941, the work channels Surrealist explorations of the unconscious into spectral spatial compositions that helped link European Surrealism with later American abstraction by treating drawing as a topography of the psyche.
Medium
Pencil and crayon on paper
Dimensions
23 x 29" (58.4 x 73.7 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Inter-American Fund
Accession
32.1942
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
