MERCEDES MATTER
Figure Studies.
Charcoal on cream wove paper. 430x355 mm; 14x14 inches.Provenance: The artist's estate, with the ink stamp on the frame back; 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, Lee Krasner, Philip Guston, and Elaine and Willem de Kooning. 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.