ARCHIVE: Correspondence, photographs, and printed matter.
Mercedes Matter
correspondence, photographs, and printed matter
Mercedes Matter was a central figure in the creation and expansion of American modernist painting, in particular Abstract Expressionism. The daughter of Philadelphia-based artist Arthur B. Carles, Matter studied first under his tutelage, and later under Lu Duble, Maurice Sterne, Alexander Archipenko, and Hans Hofmann. She was an original member of American Abstract Artists, worked for the Works Progress Administration, and assisted Fernand Léger on his murals for both the French Line passenger ship company and a private client. It was through Léger that she met her future husband, Swiss graphic designer and photographer Herbert Matter, whom she married in 1939.
The Matters were highly active in the emerging mid-century New York art scene, and close friends included Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Franz Kline, Philip Guston, Alexander Calder, and, in particular, Willem and Elaine de Kooning. Matter herself was a member of The Eight Street Club, a group of Abstract Expressionist artists — among them Pollock, de Kooning, Kline, Ad Reinhardt, and Mark Rothko — which regularly and famously met at the Cedar Tavern in New York. She taught at the Philadelphia College of Art, Pratt Institute, and New York University for many years, and in 1964 founded the New York Studio School, which promoted the practice of drawing from life. Early teachers included the Guston, Bradley Walker Tomlin, Sidney Geist, and Meyer Schapiro.
For many years the Matters lived in New York City, but moved full time to the East End of Long Island in the early 1980s, an area they had frequented during the summer for over 30 years. Herbert Matter died 1984, and afterward Matter devoted herself to the publication of his photographic book on Giacometti, for which she wrote the text; it was eventually published in 1987, four years after his death. She remained involved in the development of the Studio School, and continued teaching there, as well as further developing her own work. She died in 2001.
The collection consists of 27 letters, several exhibition invitations and announcement, and a photograph, all pertaining to or about Mercedes Matter and her circle. The letters are both written by her, as well as such seminal modernist figures as Hans Hoffman and John Entenza, with a large number by Willem and Elaine de Kooning.
I. Letters and Postcards
1. Typed letter signed, “Burgoyne Diller,” to “Whom It May Concern”; New York City, March 20, 1939; 4to.; one leaf, recto only; on Works Progress Administration letterhead; two horizontal creases; autograph Works Progress envelope, franked, addressed to “Miss Jeanne Carles”; envelope slit open on top and side, missing flap, with holographic graphite notations on verso.
An official letter from the then-head of the W.P.A. Mural Division, confirming Matter’s former employment and work with Fernand Léger, and noting that a series of paintings she had produced
“were very well received by qualified critics.”
2. Typed letter signed, “Puntz” and “P,” to “Dearest Mercy” [Mercedes Matter]; Chestnut Hill, PA, April 21, 1944; 8vo.; one leaf, both sides; cream paper; one vertical and three horizontal creases; upper right corner bent, with unrepaired tear at foot of vertical crease running through three lines of type, not affecting readability.
A gently scolding letter from Matter’s stepmother (stepbrother? stepsister?), nicknamed “Puntz,” who humorously complains that “if you can write to: Lee, Sara, Hans, Pollock, and your Mother you could at least write me a post card.” (At this time, Matter was living in California.)
She follows with her opinion of Lee Krasner (“I met her a couple of months ago at Sara’s and I think she is a darling.”), news on their father Arthur’s recent exhibition (“…it really is marvelous.”), and her comparison of a Herbert Matter photograph of Nehru’s nieces in Vogue with another by Louse Dahl-Wolf (“I
Print Inquire
