Engelberg, Swiss, 1907 - 1984

Herbert Matter was a Swiss-born American photographer and graphic designer known for his innovative use of photomontage in posters. Matter also photographed the unique personalities of his friends Alexander Calder and Alberto Giacometti at work in their studios. Born on April 25, 1907 in Engelberg, Switzerland, he went on to study painting under Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant in Paris, before working as an assistant to the famed architect Le Corbusier. During the early 1930s, Matter established his career in design with the posters he created for the Swiss National Tourist Office. Moving to New York in 1936, the artist worked as a freelance photographer for a number of magazines including Vogue, before being signed exclusively by Condé Nast. In the decades that followed, Matter took on many roles, including working as a design consultant for both the furniture company Knoll and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The artist died on May 8, 1984 in Southampton, NY. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, among others.