In 1985, Matta exhibited recent works (Matta Now) inspired by Sumerian, Greek and Etruscan mythologies at the Yares Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona, and the Fuji Television Gallery in Tokyo. In the same year, the Musée National d'Art Moderne of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris,organised a major retrospective exhibition of 202 works, including paintings, sculptures and drawings. A series of drawings will also be exhibited shortly thereafter at the Hara Museum in Tokyo. The Galerie de France in Paris and the Spanish Institute in New York organised El Quijote de Matta 1605-1985.
He receives a commission from the Spanish government to paint Munda y desnuda: la libertad for an exhibition in homage to Chile.
Matta, Entretiens Morphologiques - Notebook no. 1 - 1936-1944 is published, in which Germana Ferrari has collected all of Matta's writings, already published or unpublished, to present and illustrate the evolution of his important and protean work. In May, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris opens Eramen: Monumental Sculpture by Matta.
The Chilean government awards Matta the National Art Prize.
In November, Matta Uni Verso 11-11-11 is presented at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes inSantiago de Chile and the following year at the Fundación Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas.
Matta and Germana, 11 November 1991Matta installs Cosmo-now, a monumental steel “Tower of Babel”, 10 metres high, ideally connected by a sound signal to the five continents.
Tolomiro-Todomiro, a 7.5 metre high bronze tower in the park of the Palacio de la Moneda in Santiago de Chile.
In June, the Yokohama Museum of Art in Japan compares Masson and Matta: The Two Universes. Produces a series of full-length figures in a style reminiscent of Gargallo's Harlequin: Gli Aretri and Epidor.
Designs “Verbo América”, a gigantic 10-metre-long polychrome ceramic fresco for the station of the Santiago metro in Chile.
The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid presents Matta. The exhibition is taken over by Fundació Caixa de Catalunya in Barcelona. In June, the Fundación Pablo Ruiz Picasso, Museo-Casa Natal, in Malaga organises Matta: Obra Gráfica.
“El año de los tre 000”. Paints the series “Animali della post-storia”. Exhibits at Robert Elkon Gallery in New York.
Travelling exhibition “Matta in America. Paintings and Drawings of the 1940's” at the Museum of Art Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Miami Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Chicago.
On 23 November 2002, Matta passed away in the hospital of Civitavecchia.
The President of Chile Ricardo Lagos Escobar declares a three-day national mourning.