NAOMI MEULEMANS
Who was the surrealist Chilean artist Roberto Matta (1911-2022)? What were his roots, how did he evolve as an artist and what place does he occupy in surrealism? How should we understand this work, and what exactly are we looking at? What do we know about the fluorescent pigment, and how can it be conserved? This edition of Phoebus Focus seeks answers to these questions in order to acquire a greater understanding of the importance of Amorphous Figures, a notable work in The Phoebus Foundations Latin American collection.
Naomi Meulemans (1987) studied Conservation and Restoration at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp and the Akademie der bildenden Ku¨nste in Vienna. From 2010 to 2014, continuing her practice in art conservation, she worked for the Fine Art Conservation Group in New York. Since 2016 she has been active as a conservator and project collaborator on The Phoebus Foundations Modern Art, CoBrA, Latin American and Belgian Contemporary Art subcollections. She wrote this Phoebus Focus edition on the occasion of the exhibition History and Mystery: Latin American Art and Europe at the Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn, Estonia. It will include one hundred and twenty Latin American artworks from The Phoebus Foundation from June to November 2024. For this purpose, Naomi conducted technical-material research on works by Libero Badii (1916-2001), Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) and Roberto Matta (1911-2002).
