Herbert Matter was a Swiss-born American photographer and graphic designer. He was born in Engelberg, on April 25, 1907. Matter studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Geneva and the Académie Moderne in Paris with Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant. He worked with Adolphe Mouron Cassandre, Le Corbusier and Deberny & Peignot. In 1932, he returned to Zürich, where he designed posters for the Swiss National Tourist Office and Swiss resorts. The travel posters won instant international acclaim for his pioneering use of photomontage combined with the typeface. He went to the United States in 1936 and was hired by legendary art director Alexey Brodovitch. He soon started working for Harper's Bazaar, Vogue and other magazines. In the 1940s, photographers, including Irving Penn, used Vogue’s studios at 480 Lexington Avenue for shooting the advertising work commissioned by outside clients. The practice was at first tolerated but by 1950 it was banned because it interfered with Vogue’s interests and was a severe handicap to their editorial operations. In response to this, Matter and three other Condé Nast photographers, Serge Balkin, Constantin Joffé and Geoffrey Baker left to establish Studio Enterprises Inc. in the former House & Garden studio on 37th Street. From 1946–66, Matter was a design consultant with Knoll Associates and worked closely with Charles and Ray Eames. From 1952–76, he was a professor of photography at Yale University and from 1958–68 he served as design consultant to Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. He was elected to the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1977, received a Guggenheim Fellowship in photography in 1980 and the American Institute of Graphic Arts medal in 1983. 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. As a filmmaker, he directed two films on his friend Alexander Calder, namely Sculptures and Constructions in 1944 and Works of Calder with music by John Cage for the Museum of Modern Art in 1950. Close friends of Matter and his wife Mercedes were the painters Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, fellow Swiss photographer Robert Frank and Alberto Giacometti. Matter's wife Mercedes was the daughter of the American modernist painter Arthur Beecher Carles, and was herself the chief founder of the New York Studio School. “The absence of pomposity was characteristic of this guy”, said another designer, Paul Rand, about Matter. His creative life was devoted to narrowing the gap between the so-called fine and applied arts. Matter died on May 8, 1984, in Southampton, New York.
Chairs By Bertoia (Knoll Marketing Brochure/Poster)
By Herbert Matter, Harry Bertoia, Knoll
Located in New York, NY
Marketing poster/brochure for Harry Bertoia’s line of sculptural steel wire mesh-and-rod chairs for Knoll Associates, published in 1957. Graphic design by Herbert Matter. Folded in e...
Paper
Herbert Matter Knoll Catalog 1950 Vintage
By Herbert Matter
Located in St.Petersburg, FL
A classic Knoll catalog ca' 1950 designed by Herbert Matter. Spiral bound with approx. 80 pages. Silver cover with big K Knoll logo that became a classic.
Paper
Original Vintage Travel Poster Switzerland En Route Pour La Suisse Mountains
By Herbert Matter
Located in London, GB
Original vintage travel advertising poster - On the Road to Switzerland / En Route Pour La Suisse - issued by the Swiss National Tourist Office ONST featuring a great design by the n...
Paper
$1,749
1974 original poster for the retrospective exhibition of Alberto Giacometti
By Herbert Matter
Located in PARIS, FR
The 1974 original poster for the retrospective exhibition of Alberto Giacometti at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York is a remarkable piece that blends fine art and masterf...
Linen, Paper, Lithograph
Price Upon Request
Girl Covered with Jewelry, circa 1940
By Herbert Matter
Located in New York, NY
Unsigned
Silver Gelatin
Joan and Quintana Roo (Frame 27a.)
By Julian Wasser
Located in New York, NY
Listing includes free shipping for unframed prints and a 14 day return policy. Joan Didion by Julian Wasser 20 x 16 inch gelatin silver print Edition 3 of 15 Signed on verso by Julian Wasser *Please inquire for international shipments. Quotes will be provided at cost via FedEx. Description - Julian Wasser started his career in photography in the Washington DC bureau of the Associated Press where he met and accompanied the famous news photographer Weegee – who would become a lasting influence on him. In the mid-60s Wasser moved to Los Angeles as a contract photographer for TIME, LIFE, and FORTUNE magazines and becoming internationally known as the go to guy for getting candid but memorably composed photographs. (His iconic images of Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston; Marcel Duchamp and Eve Babitz; and a young Jodie Foster are already classics.) In 1968 TIME Magazine assigned Wasser to go to the home of the young writer Joan Didion whose book Slouching Towards Bethlehem was becoming a literary sensation. “I’d read her fiction,” said Wasser. “and she didn’t miss a thing. She was such a heavyweight person.” Wasser shot Didion at her rented house on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, where she lived with her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, and their daughter, Quintana Roo. “It was a nice, cozy house,” Wasser remembers. “And she was a very easy person to talk to...
Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
$1,959
H 40.16 in W 24.81 in D 0.04 in
Original Vintage Swiss Travel Poster, Interlaken, Mountains and Ski, 1950
Located in SAINT-OUEN-SUR-SEINE, FR
Original Vintage Poster-Suisse-Interlaken-Montagne-Ski, c.1950 Poster to promote tourism in the city of Interlaken during the summer period (April to October). Additional detai...
Paper
"FritzHansen-Furniture" Catalog, 1963
By Fritz Hansen
Located in New York, NY
Hardcover catalog of Fritz Hansen furniture featuring work by Arne Jacobsen, Borge Mogensen, Hans Wegner, Verner Panton, Kaare Klint, Karen and Ebbe Clemmensen, Kristian Vedel, Mogen...
Paper
$492Sale Price|35% Off
H 6.5 in W 9.65 in D 0.2 in
Antique Brochure Weapon Catalogue for Pietro Beretta, Published in 1906
Located in Langweer, NL
An original 1906 brochure catalogue for Pietro Beretta. A detailed catalogue offering many weapons available to purchase at the time. Incredibly rare, only a few later catalogues off...
Paper
1995 La Haine (French) Original Vintage Poster
Located in Winchester, GB
Released in 1995, Mathieu Kassovitz's classic "La Haine", or "Hate" stars Vincent Cassel, Hubert Kounde and Said Taghmaoui as Vinz, Hubert and Said as three friends in a Paris suburb...
Paper
1995 La Haine (French) Original Vintage Poster
Located in Winchester, GB
Released in 1995, Mathieu Kassovitz's classic "La Haine", or "Hate" stars Vincent Cassel, Hubert Kounde and Said Taghmaoui as Vinz, Hubert and Said as three friends in a Paris suburb...
Paper
$3,000
H 1.88 in W 2.32 in D 0.1 in
Bertoia Foundation Sterling Silver Gong Style Pendant Designed by Harry Bertoia
By Harry Bertoia
Located in New York, NY
This is a hand-hammered reproduction of a rare design that Harry Bertoia did at the Bertoia Studio in the 1970s, Bertoia toyed with creating a complete line of jewelry since the 1940...
Sterling Silver
$704Sale Price|20% Off
H 40 in W 83 in
Dense Rolling Clouds, Blue Sky Landscape Triptych, Handmade Cyanotype on Paper
By Kind of Cyan
Located in Barcelona, ES
This is an exclusive handprinted limited edition cyanotype of gorgeous rolling clouds. Details: + Title: Dense Rolling Clouds + Year: 2025 + Edition Size: 100 + Stamped and Certifi...
Lithograph, Paper
$950
H 10 in W 8 in D 0.07 in
DOUGLAS JULEFF Vintage 1950s Photograph of "Beefcake" model MAYNARD KEITH #2
Located in Glenford, NY
Rare early 1950s Original Vintage Gelatin Silver Photograph by DOUGLAS JULEFF - also known as DOUG OF DETROIT - of model MAYNARD KEITH. This is #2 of a series of 4 images of Maynard ...
Silver Gelatin
$730
H 40 in W 55.2 in
Duo of Blue Egyptian Palms, Botanical Diptych Cyanotype on Paper, Vintage Modern
By Kind of Cyan
Located in Barcelona, ES
Exclusive limited edition cyanotype diptych. Details: + Title: Duo of Egyptian Palms + Year: 2024 + Edition Size: 20 + Medium: Cyanotype on Watercolor Paper...
Lithograph, Handmade Paper
Fern Spring, Dusk, Yosemite
By Ansel Adams
Located in Pacific Grove, CA
This silver gelatin print with exemplary provenance is unsigned but bears several stamps from the artist's family on the back of the mount, including the authentication stamp of Adam...
Silver Gelatin
Original Vintage Australian Travel Poster, c. 1959 "Canada"
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
From the series on animals, commemorating Qantas’ inaugural round the world service in the 1950s. Qantas first issued this series as screen-prints in the 1950s, using a Constellation...
Paper
Chairs by Harry Bertoia: Knoll Associates, Inc Brochure
By Herbert Matter, Knoll
Located in New York, NY
Knoll brochure featuring chair (and bench) designs by Harry Bertoia but also including work by Richard Schultz, Isamu Noguchi, and Florence Knoll. Publi...
Paper
Sold
H 39.97 in W 24.81 in D 0.04 in
By Swissair to Amsterdam & Rotterdam – Original Swiss Vintage Airline Poster
By Herbert Matter
Located in Zurich, CH
Original Vintage Travel Poster by the prolific Swiss designer and photographer Herbert Matter that pioneered the art of photomontage in Switzerland due to his constant and ingenious ...
Paper
WWII Poster "America Calling, " Vintage Patriotic Poster, 1941
By Herbert Matter
Located in Colorado Springs, CO
Offered is an original WWII lithograph poster designed by Herbert Matter. Printed in 1941 by the U.S. Printing Office, this war poster was published by the Information for Emergency Management in Washington D.C. In red and white block letters, the top of the poster reads, “AMERICA CALLING,” while the bottom text reads, “Take your place in Civilian Defense.” A photographed bald eagle, by Arthur H. Fisher, spreads it wings with streaks of color giving the impression of flight. Herbert Matter’s printed signature lies just above the eagle’s wing and the overall image instills a sense of urgency and determination in a tumultuous time. Published the same year the U.S. entered the Second World War, this poster urged people to get more involved in civil defense. Civil defense is defined as all nonmilitary action done to defend life and property from the enemy. This included civilian training in firefighting, first aid, and air raid drills. This poster would have targeted the general population to do all they could to prepare to follow instructions, assist others who may need help, and help the overall war cause in the event of a homeland emergency. Condition: Overall very good condition. One small paint spot present just below the eagle’s foot...
Paper
Herbert Matter Collage Mock-Up for the Knoll, 1948 Catalog
By Herbert Matter, Knoll
Located in BROOKLYN, NY
Herbert Matter was the design consultant for all Knoll graphics from 1946-1966. This collage mock-up was modified for the famous cover of Knoll's 1948 catalog....
Paper