Roberto Matta Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts 1992

The Jury for the 1992 Prince of Asturias Award for Arts, comprising María Antonia Fernández Felgueroso, Manuel Martín Ferrand, José Lladó Fernández-Urrutia, Tomás Llorens Serra, Leopoldo Rodés Castañé and Miguel de Oriol Ybarra, gathered in Oviedo under the presidency of Antonio Pedrol Rius, and with Jorge Fernández Bustillo acting as secretary, have agreed by majority to grant the 1992 Prince of Asturias Award for Arts to the Chilean painter Roberto Matta Echaurren. Roberto Matta, one of the youngest members of the first Surrealist group, greatly contributed to the enrichment of North American art during the World War II period, when a major migration of European artists and writers to New York took place. His work, which explores the relationship between verbal and pictorial language, may be interpreted as an exemplary illustration of the "psychic automatism" which the Surrealists so dearly loved.

Oviedo, 8th May 1992