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Mercedes Matter

American painter and educator, 1913–2001

BiographyMercedes Matter was born in New York in 1913 to parents engaged in the art community. Her father Arthur B. Carles studied with Matisse and her mother was a model for Edward Steichen. Matter studied art at Bennett College and later in New York City with Maurice Sterne, Alexander Archipenko, and Hans Hofmann. She was an original member of the American Abstract Artists and in the early 1950s, Matter taught at the Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts), Pratt Institute, and New York University. Prompted by her interest in the art education system, Matter founded the New York Studio School in 1964. Her first solo exhibition was held in 1956, and Matter is included in the public collections of the Delaware Art Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among many others.

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