Matta (Roberto Sebastian Antonio Matta Echaurren) formal studies began in architecture, and he received his diploma in architectural studies in 1932 from La Universidad Catolica de Santiago in Chile. This coincided with his apprenticeship under visiting Swiss-French architect La Corbusier, working on his proposal for the Ville Radieuse in 1930. His interests soon veered away from architecture and he began his artistic career as a draughtsman. On the advice of friend Andre Breton, he moved to Paris in 1933 and traveled throughout Europe between 1935 and 1937, meeting Federico Garcia Lorca who introduced him to Dali.

Thanks to Dali, Matta joined the Surrealist movement in 1937 and contributed to the their publications. He began painting in 1938 and that same year he participated in the Paris Exposicion International du Surrealism. He was excluded from the Surrealist group in 1947 but was reinstated in 1959. Exiled to the United States in 1939 with the onset of World War II, Matta settled in New York where his biomorphic, alien landscapes and figures gained popularity among artists and gallerists. His first solo exhibition in the US took place at the Julian Levy Gallery in 1940. Between 1943 and 1947 Matta worked at Atelier 17, then located in The New School, as many European and American artists did during the war. Stanley William Hayter's experimental workshop proved to be a boon for the artist whose style became more solid through his work with new printmaking tools and the atmosphere of discovery. He would return to work there from time to time in the 1950s. After the war and his break from the Surrealist movement in 1948, Matta moved to Italy, dividing his time between Paris, London, and Roma and Tarquinia. He also maintained close ties with his Chilean home and to Latin America.

Nearly 400 exhibitions of Matta's work have been mounted internationally, beginning with a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in 1957. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Cleveland Art Museum; the de Young Museum, SF; the Haifa Museum of Art; Iwaki City Museum, Japan; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris; Museo de Arte Latinamericano de Buenos Aires; Museo de Artes Visuales, Santiago; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; and many others.