LOMONOSOV-LAVOISIER | Vicente Matte

 

The artists’ book Lomonósov-Lavoisier (2014) of the Chilean artist Vicente Matta (Santiago, 1987) takes as its main element the physics law of the Conservation of Matter, discovered-isolated almost simultaneously by the French scientist Antonie Lavoisier and the Russian Mijail Lomonósov. This law, with its statement  “matter is neither created nor destroyed, but it only transforms,” states on one side the permanence of matter and for the other its unalterable fate of transformation. This is precisely the idea that articulates the set of seven xylographias that make up this book and that take it as an allegoric idea of the contradictory coexistence of the ephemeral and the permanent.

At the beginning of the book there appears a fragment of the Elementary Treatise of Chemistry (Traité elementaire of Chemie) of Antoine Lavoisier, in which he proposes the essential idea of his discovery …. “ nothing is created, nor the art operations, nor the ones of nature; and it is possible to enunciate that, in every operation, there is a certain same amount  of matter before and after the operation; that the amount and quality of the principles of it , and that there is nothing else but changes, modifications.

In Matta´s engravings we find symbolic elements; the graphic representation of a valley, the repeated portraits of the scientists Lomonósov and Lovoisier or the persistent picture of the window of his workshop, these elements keep conforming associations that not only extend the concepts inside the scientific theory, but rather he uses them to set questions on our reality and its correspondence with the earth.

 

$4,500,000 Pesos chilenos (CLP)

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Weight 4 kg
Dimensions 58.5 × 39.5 × 5 cm
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About the author

About the author

Vicente Matte (1987) / Santiago, Chile.

Vicente Matte has developed his work in various media, mainly in painting. His work is characterized by a strong narrative that combines a high biographical content with references to the art history, literature and Latin American popular culture. Through seemingly everyday images Matte establishes his own vision of human existence and his contemporary reality; in this way, breastfeeding appears as an act of subjugation and subversion, children as destabilizing beings of the apparent routine, today’s human being as an egotistical narcissus, and other topics too. Matte’s complex narrative is developed through a simple drawing. His paintings are immersed in a crisp and innocent atmosphere, where synthesis ends up building direct images.

The artist book Lomonósov-Lavoisier (2014) of the Chilean artist Vicente Matta (Santiago, 1987) takes as its main element the physics law of the Conservation of Matter, discovered-isolated almost simultaneously by the French scientist Antonie Lavoisier and the Russian Mijail Lomonósov. This law, with its statement  “matter is neither created nor destroyed, but it only transforms,” states on one side the permanence of matter and for the other its unalterable fate of transformation. This is precisely the idea that articulates the set of seven xylographias that make up this book and that take it as an allegoric idea of the contradictory coexistence of the ephemeral and the permanent.

At the beginning of the book there appears a fragment of the Elementary Treatise of Chemistry (Traité elementaire of Chemie) of Antoine Lavoisier, in which he proposes the essential idea of his discovery …. “ nothing is created, nor the art operations, nor the ones of nature; and it is possible to enunciate that, in every operation, there is a certain same amount  of matter before and after the operation; that the amount and quality of the principles of it , and that there is nothing else but changes, modifications.

In Matta´s engravings we find symbolic elements; the graphic representation of a valley, the repeated portraits of the scientists Lomonósov and Lovoisier or the persistent picture of the window of his workshop, these elements keep conforming associations that not only extend the concepts inside the scientific theory, but rather he uses them to set questions on our reality and its correspondence with the earth.

 

Technical Specifications

Author: Vicente Matte

Format: 7 black and white xylographies in Guarro Superalfa paper 100% cotton. 4 texts printed in offset. 1 xylography printed in cardboard cover covered with canvas. 1 embossed printed in the backcover of cardboard in canvas. Culminating with the author signature.

Publisher: self publication

Dimensions: 58,5 x 39,5 cm (closed)

Print run: 10 signed copies

Collections: Die Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, Germany.

Year of publication: 2014

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