Charles Matton: Enclosures

Charles Matton's perfect small-scale reconstructions are a disruptive yet profoundly bewitching glimpse of our physical and private world. Charles Matton (1931-2008) was a French painter, sculptor, photographer, stage designer, screenwriter, and producer. An extraordinary, multifaceted artist, Matton explored the many possibilities of visual and written expressions, only to become more aware of their limitations. His desire to create reality--and not merely represent it--led him to design, build, paint, and weave in order to reconstitute over 200 striking three-dimensional scenes of our everyday life, drawing from imaginative literary fiction, trompe l'oeil techniques, mirror illusions, and Dutch and American realist painting. His miniature boxes or "space reconstructions" will be featured at the exhibition Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities (June 7-September 18, 2011) at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.