The Vertigo of Eros

Roberto Matta · 1944

Before you is The Vertigo of Eros — a painting by the Chilean artist Roberto Matta, nineteen forty-four. Oil on canvas — pigment ground into a slow-drying oil, which is what lets a painter go back into wet paint for days. It is one of the largest things in this museum — about 17 times the area of a typical work here. Matta was part of the surrealism movement.

Medium Oil on canvas · Dimensions 6' 5" x 8' 3" (195.6 x 251.5 cm) · Credit Given anonymously

Hanging beside it in Gallery 522: Two Sisters