Together with Bálint Szombathy, MATKOVIĆ was one of the founders of the Bosch+Bosch Group, who had a fundamental influence on the artist community through his vision and creative work. The early years of the group were marked by the friendship (“spiritual brotherhood”) between Matković and Szombathy. For Matković, the passage through cultures, the practice of multiculturalism and transcending the limitations of local languages also meant that he regularly read and informed himself in several languages, including Hungarian. From 1971 he began to experiment with visual poetry and comics, often disrupting their narrative structure. In search of possibilities for the relationship between text and image, he used various graphic forms and montage techniques, and also created actions and interventions in the natural environment (Lake Ludasi). Several of his experimental comic strips were published in the magazine Új Symposion, mostly collages of elements with different origins and without narrative. His computer graphics (MWS – Manivel III/12) draws surfaces using a graphic combination of simple symbols (dot, circle, straight lines, +, - signs, etc.), where the image often becomes a figurative reference (human figure, face). Visual poetry was a concern for the group as a whole at this time, just as semiotic issues of text and visuality were part of a vibrant artistic practice. Perhaps a more accurate description for Matković’s work is the notion of typo poetry (introduced by Biljana Tomić). In this framework, the significance of the image, whether created with a typewriter or a computer, is not determined by the technical medium, but by the typographic value of the signs and letters as part of a larger visual expression. In his imprinted and stamped pages (Imprinted Surfaces No. 73, New Signalist Strip 3), he employs a combination of mixed media and a sense of humour, comparing his existence as an artist and the output in terms of the number of works produced to the lifework of the great icon of modern art, Picasso.
