Mercedes Matter

Art Brokerage: Mercedes Matter American Artist: b. 1913-2001. Mercedes Matter was born in 1913 in New York, New York. Daughter of modernist painter Arthur Beecher Carles and model Mercedes de Cordoba, Matter began painting at age 6 alongside her father, who himself had studied with Henri Matisse. Matter grew up in Philadelphia, New York, and Europe, living in Italy for over 2 years beginning when she was 12. This time was formative for her education in art history, which she followed up with lessons in sculpture and painting in New York with such notable teachers as Lu Duble, Alexander Archipenko and Hans Hofmann, with whom she would build a strong friendship. .In the late 1930s, Matter was an original member of the American Abstract Artists, and worked closely with Fernand Leger, who later introduced her to her future husband, Herbert Matter. Matter would go on to form close relationships with the important artists of the mid-century New York art scene such as Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Alexander Calder and Willem de Kooning. Listings wanted.