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HERBERT MATTER* (Engelberg 1907 - 1984 Southampton)

James Johnson Sweeny, director of Guggenheim, around 1960
gelatin silver print 25,2 x 20,2 cm
verso photographer's stamp

SCHÄTZPREIS / ESTIMATE € 200 - 400
STARTPREIS / STARTING PRICE € 200

Herbert Robert Matter was a Swiss-born American photographer and graphic designer known for his pioneering use of photomontage in commercial art. Matter‘s innovative and experimental work helped shape the vocabulary of 20th-century graphic design. He worked with Adolphe Mouron Cassandre, Le Corbusier and Deberny & Peignot. He went to the United States in 1936 and was hired by legendary art director Alexey Brodovitch. Work for Harper‘s Bazaar, Vogue and other magazines followed. From 1946 to 1966 Matter was design consultant with Knoll Associates. He worked closely with Charles and Ray Eames. From 1952 to 1976 he was professor of photography at Yale University and from 1958 to 1968 he served as design consultant to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. As a photographer, Matter won acclaim for his purely visual approach. A master technician, he used every method available to achieve his vision of light, form and texture. Manipulation of the negative, retouching, cropping, enlarging and light drawing are some of the techniques he used to achieve the fresh form he sought in his still lifes, landscapes, nudes and portraits. Close friends of Matter and his wife Mercedes were the painters Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, fellow Swiss photographer Robert Frank and Alberto Giacometti. Further artists and styles: Guggenheim, Robert Frank, Alberto Giacometti, Knoll, Charles Eames, Ray Eames, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning
PLEASE NOTE:
The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights. In the case of normal taxation (marked ° at the estimate), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax is added to the sum of the highest bid and the buyer's premium. This amounts to 13% for paintings, drawings, graphic works and sculptures and 20% for photographs and all other items.
The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.