MERCEDES MATTERCubist Nude.Charcoal on cream wove paper, circa 1938. 635x480 mm; 25x19 inches. Provenance: Mark Borghi Fine Art Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New Jersey.Matter (1913-2001) received art training from her father, the painter Arthur Beecher Carles (1882-1952) and also studied under Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964) and Hans Hofmann (1880-1966). She worked with Fernand Léger (1881-1955), who would become a close friend, in New York, on his mural for the French Line passenger ship company and again privately on another mural. Léger introduced her to Herbert Matter (1907-1984), the Swiss graphic designer and photographer whom she married in 1939. She was a formative member of the American Abstract Artists and after working for the WPA in the late 1930s, Matter became active in the New York School circle of young artists, including Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), Lee Krasner (1908-1984), Philip Guston (1913-1980), Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989) and Willem de Kooning (1904-1997). Matter was a driving force behind the creation of the New York Studio School in 1964, which stressed the importance of artistic development in the studio over headline-grabbing experimentation.