An Analysis of Roberto Matta’s “Eat Us Sir Fire, Eat Us”

UNIVERSITY OF NAMIBIA RESEARCH METHODS FOR VISUAL ARTS digest OF A PAINTING YANA JAEGER 201124351 DUE DATE 15 MARCH 2013 The endeavor of this paper is to find a moving-picture show, describe it and analyse the piece. The structure of this duty assignment will be as follows in getation ab appear the artist, an overall exposition of the piece and a detailed analysis. For the conclusion, I shall attempt to interpret the hemorrhage and give my personal views. The artwork I start selected is a painting d integrity by Roberto Matta, titled Eat Us Sir Fire, Eat Us. Roberto Matta was born in Chile, Santiago 1911, and died in Italy, Civitavecchia 2002.Many artists influenced this painter, such as Dali, Duchamp, Picasso and Tanguy. The zeal for his paintings and subject field came from mythology, cosmology and microscopic images. Mattas subject matter usually included paranoid visions of technology gone amuck, themes of Man versus Machine, nonnatural landscapes, alien beings involve d in various unexplainable activities, conflict, eroticism and curious fantasy. However, several of his works seat be categorised as inscapes. Inscapes is a word created by two new(prenominal) words (also known as a portmanteau) interior and landscape.This conveys more or less idea of the artists intellect and state of mind. Basically, inscapes show what the artists mind would look ilk if it were splashed onto a canvas. Matta officially joined the Surrealist Movement in 1937. He was well-known as a Biomorphic Surrealist painter. For clarification Surrealism was A 20th speed of light movement in art and literature aiming at expressing the subconscious mind. (The crisp Oxford Dictionary 8th Edition, 1990, p. 1228) This movement was divided into two styles Naturalistic and Biomorphic Surrealism.Biomorphic Surrealism can be described as natural occurring patterns or shapes indicative of nature. The images ar usually not recognisable, barely sometimes they can be delineated by cells or morphing shapes. Eat Us Sir Fire, Eat Us is an rock oil painting on canvas, created in 1988. The scale is sort of large ascribable to the fact Matta was also inspired by Mexican Muralists, his work tended to be metres in size. It is in a landscape format, thus having a angular shape. The focal point is in the bottom left field corner where one can see two animal-like figures and perhaps a sympathetic figure, retention a jug/vase, standing behind them.Above these figures there is a beady yellow dot, possibly compriseing the sun or a spark. In the boil down is the cut, but it is not clearly recognisable. The merely clue to knowing it is the awaken is the b effective red paint mixed within the shapes and patterns. In the marrow right, one can see two feline-type figures facing the abscond. The art elements I shall be using to analyse this piece argon line, form, tone, colour, composition, style and emotion. Matta utilize both black and white lines in his artw ork. He employ them to limn his figures and create random shapes and patterns.The lines are truly clear, juxtaposed, some are thin, some are thick and he also incorporated both swell and curving lines. Most of the straight lines lead the eye to the figures in the left bottom corner. There are a variety of small forms with a few dispersed larger forms in this image. The forms are angular and curved and slightly broken, similar to the Cubistic style. The larger forms are placed on either side of the canvas with the smaller forms/shapes placed clustered in concert in the eye. Matta was famous for using vivid and bright acidic work in his work. This piece is no different.He used bright red, yellow, acerbic green, orange, a maculation of brown, black and white. Red and orange was used for the fire in the centre, yellow for the sky in the top row and left tower ( golden Section), green in the right column and bottom row (also Golden Section), black shadows in the entire bottom and centre rows, white for the cola in the top row and the figures on the left, and lastly brown in the left bottom corner on the rabbit-sort figure. The tones are quite dark, in the main in the bottom and centre where the black shadows are seen, with a bit of lighter tones on the animal figures and the sky.The composition is well balanced overdue to the placement of the colours and figures. The position of the animals on the sides and the fire in the centre creates a three panelled partition in the image. The two Golden Sections created by the yellow and green, creates a sort of diagonal division from the top right corner to the left bottom corner. The lightness of the sky creates a division from the darkness of the earth on the bottom two rows. Clearly Matta used the Golden Grid Rule in this artwork. Mattas style is rattling abstract and biomorphic.Nothing is really recognisable, but one is only given a instinct of what is going on in this image. At first, feelings of panic, ch aos, urgency, angst and heat are generated from this artwork, but on closer inspection, one feels a sense of calm, caring and amazement. I feel a sense of emergency created by the fire and its close proximity to the animals, fearing for their safety. However, I also feel a sense of awe and readiness from the animals staring into the fire, as if waiting for something. Possibly the fire is so beautiful that the animals do not feel the need to run away from it.They are all facing towards it, felling no fear. They could be look at it admirably, or in wonder, transfixed. It reminds me of the Native Americans, the way they huddle near a fire while the sun sets, telling each other stories. It especially reminds me of the theatrics of the medicine-man, who flings dust into the fire creating sparks and heavy smoke, and then ghostly images form in the flames and smoke. This is a form of fortune-telling, to create assurance and set the battalions minds at ease, but this is also used to advi se the masses to remain aware and head the warnings.In the title, Matta calls the fire Sir. This could have been his way of look that the fire has a higher status and should be respected. It portrays the fire as noble and honourable. Even though the fire seems as if it is out of control, the animals and human look at it intently, and do not hurry in the paired direction. This blends well with the title Eat Us, meaning that they are impulsive to be consumed by the fire. It is possible that this image could be erotic in some way. Dreaming of animals usually represents the subliminal animalistic tendencies of the dreamer, and fire symbolises passion, relish and sex.It could be conceivable that Matta was trying to portray an animalistic love or lust in humans, and we have a subconscious desire to be consumed by it. We secretly yearn to become wild, be devoured by lust, have sex with no attachments and do it for the physical pleasure alone. A precise Freudian way of interpreting th is painting, I think. Yet perhaps Matta was only trying to say that one should not be afraid of the fire, rather respect and be in awe of it. But what does the fire represent? Itself, or something deeper and more psychological?All in all, this is a very colourful and chaotic piece. It leaves many questions in ones mind, but that is what makes Mattas work so enticing trying to figure out what he was thinking and what he may have revealed about himself, plectron the canvas with landscapes of mystery and obscurity. Image Eat Us Sir Fire, Eat us Roberto Matta 1988 Oil on Canvas References 1. The Concise Oxford Dictionary 8th Edition. (1990). refreshful York Oxford University Press 2. Rock, T. (1997). Matta Art. Retrieved 13 March 2013, http//www. matta-art. com/