Herbert Matter: The Swiss Designer and Photographer

Herbert Matter (1907 – 1984) was a Swiss Designer and Photographer. He was born in Engelberg in 1907 and settled in the United States in 1936.

Education

He studied painting in Geneva, 1925-27, and at the Academie Moderne, Paris, 1928-29.

Biography

He was a freelance designer and photographer, working with poster artist A. M. Cassandre and architect Le Corbusier for Deberny et Peignot printing company, Paris, 1929-32, and for the Swiss National Tourist Board, Zurich, 1932-36.

As a freelance photographer;

He worked for Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and others in New York from 1936-46.

He was the staff photographer at Condé Nast Publications, New York, 1946-57;

A freelance photographer and graphic designer, New York, 1956-84;

A design consultant to Knoll International, 1946-66, New Haven Railroad, 1954-55, Guggenheim Museum and Houston Museum of Fine Arts, 1958-68, and New York Studio School, 1964-78.

Professor of photography, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 1952-82.

Exhibitions

Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1943 (toured); American Institute of Graphic Arts, New York, 1962; Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 1978; Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1978; Marlborough Gallery, New York, 1979.

Source

Morgan, A. L. (1997). Contemporary Designers. St. James Press.

Books about Herbert Matter

Hollis, R. (2006). Swiss graphic design : the origins and growth of an international style, 1920-1965. United Kingdom: Yale University Press.

Raizman, D. (2003). History of Modern Design: Graphics and Products Since the Industrial Revolution. United Kingdom: Laurence King.

Books by Herbert Matter

Matter, H., & Matter, M. (1987). Alberto Giacometti. Abrams.

Matter, H., C., R. A. S., Perl, J., & Hill, J. T. (2013). Calder by Matter. Cahiers d’art.

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