Compostion X 1962

Matta made this print, Composition X, with ink on paper. The color palette is all over the place, jumping from rosy pinks to dark and stormy grays. I imagine Matta hovering over the plate, scratching lines with a drypoint needle, building up a network of hatched marks, and wiping away excess ink to leave traces of his labor. There’s a real sense of touch, of the hand working in tandem with the mind, each informing the other. I wonder if Matta was thinking of technology, or maybe even the cosmos. The forms definitely evoke futuristic machinery, crisscrossing like some kind of blueprint. Those soft pink orbs floating amid the steel seem alien, like a life form. This piece feels like a conversation with other artists such as Kandinsky, maybe even Duchamp. Artists are always speaking to each other across time and space, riffing off each other’s ideas, pushing the boundaries of what art can be. For me, painting is about embracing the unknown, trusting the process, and letting the work surprise you.