Matta in America: Paintings and Drawings from the 1940s focuses on the first decade of the Roberto Sebastian Matta’s career from 1939 to 1948, when he lived in exile in New York to escape war in Europe. Chilean born Matta’s work during this period helped to develop American painting of the 1940s. Matta in America: Paintings and Drawings from the 1940s opens September 30, 2001 at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in downtown Los Angeles, and remains on view through January 6, 2002. Following its presentation at MOCA, the exhibition will travel to the Miami Art Museum (March 22 to June 2, 2002) and to the MCA, Chicago (July 13 to October 20, 2002).

Co-organized by MOCA and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the exhibition brings together 19 paintings and 20 drawings that illustrate the early development of the artist’s artistic style. The works in this exhibition reveal Matta’s success at generating a unique and personal approach to abstract painting through which he attempts to communicate his ideas of uniting man’s inner universe with events in the world around him. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue co-published by MOCA and the MCA, Chicago. It includes texts by the co-curators of the exhibition Elizabeth Smith of the MCA, Chicago; Colette Dartnall, Los Angeles-based curator; and William Rubin, curator emeritus of The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

"Matta’s powerful abstract paintings provide incredible insight into New York during the 1940s, one of the most important periods of American contemporary art," said Jeremy Strick, MOCA director. "We are delighted to present the work of this legendary Latin American artist."