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I Want to See It to Believe It from Brunidor Portfolio, No. 1

I Want to See It to Believe It from Brunidor Portfolio, No. 1

Roberto Matta
Chilean, 1911–2002
1947
This lithograph by Roberto Matta collapses bodies, machines, and architectural fragments into a disorienting, dreamlike montage, testing how perception and belief hold together across fragmented space.
At a glance you notice a loose grid of pale blue panels pierced by quick, wiry ink lines that trace elongated, insectile figures and schematic mechanical parts drifting across tilted, maplike planes.
Matta transformed Surrealist automatism into an architectural and cosmic language, opening postwar art to explorations of spatial psychology and the movement between inner and outer worlds.
Medium
Lithograph from a portfolio of five etchings (one with engraving) and two lithographs
Dimensions
composition: 12 1/8 x 12 7/8" (30.8 x 32.7 cm); sheet: 16 1/8 x 12 7/8" (41 x 32.7 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Purchase Fund
Accession
342.1947.5
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
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