Untitled, from Come Detta Dentro vo Significado

Matta began to devote himself to print media during the late 1950s, mastering a number of complex color printmaking techniques. This work derives from the 1962 series Come detta dentro vo significado, whose title is taken from a line in canto XXIV of Dante’s Purgatory which roughly translates to “I am one who, when Love inspires him, takes note, and then, writes it in the way he dictates within.” This print recalls Matta’s painted “inscapes,” which seek to represent the interior space of the mind and juxtapose recognizable geometric shapes with more organic elements.