Matter's father was the
American modernist painter
Arthur Beecher Carles. Her mother,
Mercedes de Cordoba, was a model for
Edward Steichen. Matter grew up in
Philadelphia,
New York City, and Europe. She first painted under her father's supervision at age 6 and would later recall being given a paintbox to use while working alongside him in the French countryside. After her parents divorced in 1926, Matter spent her remaining school years at various private schools in Europe and America. At the age of 12, she returned to Europe and lived in Italy for over 2 years. She would later recount that her time in Italy—including
Venice,
Assisi,
Rome, and
Florence—was formative and her primary education in
art history. Subsequent studies included at
Bennett College in
Millbrook, NY with sculptor Lu Duble, and in
New York City with Maurice Sterne,
Alexander Archipenko and
Hans Hofmann. In the late 1930s, Matter was an original member of the
American Abstract Artists. She also worked for the
Works Progress Administration. She worked with
Fernand Léger, who would become a close friend, on his mural for the French Line passenger ship company and again privately on another mural. He also resided with the couple for a year sharing their studio and apartment. The Matters were active in the emerging mid-century New York art scene, and contact with other artists was important to them. Close friends included
Jackson Pollock,
Lee Krasner,
Franz Kline,
Philip Guston,
Alexander Calder and
Willem de Kooning. In 1943, the Matters moved to
California. Matter was raising an infant son but the environment away from New York was affecting her work. She returned to New York in 1946. Beginning in 1953, Matter taught at the
Philadelphia College of Art (now
University of the Arts) for 10 years, and then at the
Pratt Institute for 10 years. She later taught at
New York University for several years. She was a visiting critic at
Antioch,
Brandeis, Cincinnati School of Art,
Kansas City Art Institute,
Maryland Institute College of Art,
Yale University,
Skowhegan and
American University in
Washington, DC. In 1964, she founded the
New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture. A year earlier, she wrote an article for
ARTnews titled ''What's Wrong with U.S. Art Schools?'' in which she criticised the phasing out of extended studio classes. Such classes served the "painfully slow education of the senses," which she considered essential. The article prompted a group of Pratt students, as well as students from Philadelphia and one from Cooper Union, to ask Matter to form a school based on her ideas. The Studio School was originally housed in a loft on Broadway and gained almost immediate support from the Kaplan Fund, Mrs.
John D. Rockefeller III and the
Ford Foundation. It granted no degrees, offered only studio classes and emphasized drawing from life. Early teachers, chosen by the students, included the artists
Philip Guston,
Bradley Walker Tomlin, Charles Cajori,
Louis Finkelstein and
Sidney Geist; the art historian
Meyer Schapiro; and the composer
Morton Feldman. The school continues to train emerging artists. The Matters lived on Macdougal Alley for years, where Mr. Matter had a studio in one of the eight small buildings that had housed the original locale of what is now the
Whitney Museum of American Art. In later life, the Matters moved to Long Island. Her work is included in the collection of the
Whitney Museum of American Art. Matter died on December 4, 2001. In 2016 her biography was included in the exhibition catalogue
Women of Abstract Expressionism organized by the
Denver Art Museum. ==References==