Can't import matplotlib

In the interpreter, when I try to import matplot lib as:
%python
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

I receive the error:
ImportError: Gtk3 backend requires pygobject to be installed.

I created this by creating an amazon emr with the following commands:
aws emr create-cluster --name "4-node Zeppelin cluster (test)" --instance-type m3.xlarge --release-label emr-5.3.0 --instance-count 4 --ec2-attributes KeyName=myKey --use-default-roles --applications Name=Hive Name=Pig Name=Spark Name=Zeppelin --no-auto-terminate

I am using python 2.7

tried searching around for a fix but couldnt find one.