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THBRoberto Matta
About Seller
PO Box 2135
Asheville, NC 28802
United States
Based in Asheville, North Carolina, Brunk Auctions has been conducting sales of fine and decorative arts for over 30 years. Auctions are held in our North Carolina sale room but attracts a global audience. Founded by Robert Brunk in 1983, the auctions became well known for their integrity and profes...Read more
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About Auction
LiveOct 20, 2023
With over 125 lots of photography including Diane Arbus, Ansel Adams, and many others; fine art including Fritz Bultman, Andy Warhol, the Gordon Onslow-Ford Collection, and Picasso ceramics; decor and furniture including Nakashima, Ruhlmann, Frank Gehry, contemporary art glass, plus much more. Brunk Auctions support@brunkauctions.com
View Full Catalog (267)
- Lot Description
(Chilean, 1911-2002)
Game in Suisse, 1938, signed verso "Matta", inscribed recto "Do you remember our game in Suisse", a puzzle letter for Miss Elisabeth Onslow-Ford, sister of the artist, Gordon Onslow-Ford. with canceled cover dated 1938, crayon and pencil on paper, sight 10-5/8 x 6-7/8 in.; wood frame with sandwiched glass revealing verso inscriptions, 17-3/4 x 13-3/4 x 5/8 in.
Provenance: Roberto Matta to Elisabeth Onslow-Ford, sister of the artist, Gordon Onslow-Ford; By Descent in family
Inscriptions by Matta on the verso of the puzzle pieces:
I am going to paint your sea soon
Gordon thinks you should go and visit
Send me more drawings
if you found the whole thing it merits a price
your picture in your last letter it is marvelous
I really like it
I show it to Gordon hiding the signature and he adores it.
This piece is on the other side
till the next letter
It is a pity you can't come
Matta
Exhibited: Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC, Gordon Onslow-Ford: Voyager and Visionary, February 11 – May 13, 2012.
Note: Roberto Matta and Gordon Onslow-Ford met in Paris in 1937, became close friends and reveled in shared artistic discovery. They joined Breton’s Surrealist group together in 1938 and were the youngest members. Gordon’s sister Elisabeth, an adventurous young woman, visited Gordon in France, befriended the Surrealists and joined them in many adventures in Paris, Brittany and Switzerland. (“our game in Suisse”). Elisabeth introduced Matta and the others to English games, charades, riddles and rhymes for fun and also to teach them English. Such games could stimulate unexpected vision and spark leaps of creativity. They were an important way to join the worlds of dream, myth, illusion and absurdity which was part of the Surrealist quest. Elisabeth was back home in London in August 1938 and received a letter from Matta. He had made a bold and humorous drawing of a head (harkening back to the English game of “head, body and legs” or, as the Surrealists called it, Cadavre Exquis.) It is also reminiscent of the fruit and vegetable portraits by Giuseppe Arcimbolo, known as Grandfather of Surrealism. Matta carefully tore his drawing into irregular pieces and wrote little personal messages here and there, front and back. He withheld one corner piece and teasingly said “if you found the whole thing it merits a price ((sic) prize.)” Imagine her surprise and delight receiving this envelope full of little scraps of colored paper. She fitted them together like a jigsaw puzzle, saw the inner meaning and treasured his joke for a lifetime. Elisabeth did return to France for one last summer with her dear friends before the war scattered them to the winds.
Condition
upper left corner not present (likely artist intended, see inscription "if you found the whole thing it merits a price"), not removed from sandwich glass framing
- Provenance
Roberto Matta to Elisabeth Onslow-Ford, sister of the artist, Gordon Onslow-Ford; By Descent in family
- Shipping Info
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Purchased items will be available for pick up or shipping from our Asheville, North Carolina auction facility within ten business days of the auction will be assessed a storage fee of $5.00 per day, per item. Purchaser agrees that packing and shipping is done at the purchaser's risk and that the purchaser will pay in advance all packing expenses, materials, carrier fees and insurance charges. At our discretion, items will either be packed by an agent such as a packaging store or Brunk Auctions. Please allow two weeks for shipping after payment is received. Shipment of large items is the responsibility of the purchaser. We are happy to provide names of carriers and shippers if a purchaser so requests. Brunk Auctions will have no liability for any loss or damage to shipped items.
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