After attending a roundtable discussion on the paintings of Roberto Matta, Eric Sutphin reconsiders the artist's work.

Sutphin notes that "the current exhibition of the artist's late works shows Matta at his most volatile. Six decades of influence and practice show through the impossibly complex surfaces of the paintings presented, architectural and geomorphic forms thrust outward and retract into the picture planes. Densely wrought grounds act as smokey stages where the microcosmic… and cosmological morphologies collide, meld and repel one another in agonizing dramas while fortunate moments of humor are left intact."

Matta:A Centennial Celebration is on view at Pace Gallery until January 28, 2012