HERBERT MATTER
MODERNIST PHOTOGRAPHY AND GRAPHIC DESIGN
Jeffrey Head [text]
Jeffrey Head [text]: HERBERT MATTER: MODERNIST PHOTOGRAPHY AND GRAPHIC DESIGN. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Libraries, 2005. First edition [limited to 1,000 copies]. Square quarto. Photographically printed thick wrappers. Unpaginated [40 pp.] Well illustrated with color and duotone illustrations of photography, photomontage and graphic design. A fine, unread copy.
9 x 9.25 exhibition catalog published in conjunction with the exhibit of the same name from October 20, 2005 through February 11, 2006. Catalog design by John T. Hill, a colleague and former student of Matter. Stanford University Libraries acquired the Matter archive in 2004, and it represents the largest collection of visual material by a single artist in the library. It includes a combination of thousands of fine art and commercial prints and photographs, negatives including glass plates, design process materials such as sketches, paste-up layout work, collages, exhibition materials, correspondence, and 16mm film.
Herbert Matter (1907-1983) studied with Fernand Leger and Amedee Ozenfant at the Academie Moderne in Paris in the late 1920s before returning to Switzerland to design a series of Swiss travel posters which illustrate his signature photomontage technique. When he arrived in the United States in 1936 his first clients were the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and the publisher Conde Nast. Other clients included the Guggenheim Museum (1958-1968), Knoll Furniture (1946-1966), and the New Haven Railroad (1954). During this time Matter became a tenured professor at Yale and helped to shape the university's photography and graphic design program (1952-1976). Matter's advanced techniques in graphic design and photography became part of a new visual narrative that began in the 1930s, which have since evolved into familiar design idioms such as overprinting -- where an image extends beyond the frame -- and the bold use of color, size, and placement in typography. Such techniques often characterize both pre-war European Modernism and the post-war expression of that movement in the United States.
"Herbert's background is fascinating and enviable," said Paul Rand. "He was surrounded by good graphics and learned from the best." Therefore, it is no wonder that the famed posters designed for the Swiss Tourist Office soon after his return had the beauty and intensity of Cassandre and the geometric perfection of Corbu, wed to a very distinctive personal vision.
In 1936, Matter was offered roundtrip passage to the United States as payment for his work with a Swiss ballet troupe. He spoke no English, yet traveled across the United States. When the tour was over, he decided to remain in New York. At the urging of a friend who worked at the Museum of Modern Art, Matter went to see Alexey Brodovitch, who had been collecting the Swiss travel posters (two of which were hanging on Brodovitch's studio wall). Matter soon began taking photographs for Harper's Bazaar and Saks Fifth Avenue. Later, he affiliated himself with a photographic studio, "Studio Associates," located near the Conde Nast offices, where he produced covers and inside spreads for Vogue.
During World War II, Matter made striking posters for Container Corporation of America. In 1944, he became the design consultant at Knoll, molding its graphic identity for over 12 years. As Alvin Eisenman, head of the Design Department at Yale and long-time friend, points out: "Herbert had a strong feeling for minute details, and this was exemplified by the distinguished typography he did for the Knoll catalogues."
In 1952, he was asked by Eisenman to join the Yale faculty as professor of photography and graphic design. "He was a marvelous teacher," says Eisenman. "His roster of students included some of the most important names in the field today." At Yale, he tried his hand at architecture, designing studio space in buildings designed by Louis Kahn and Paul Rudolph. "He was good at everything he tried to do," continues Eisenman. In 1954, he was commissioned to create the corporate identity for the New Haven Railroad. The ubiquitous "NH" logo, with its elongated serifs, was one of the most identifiable symbols in America.