?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 700 - $ 1,000
HERBERT MATTER (1907-1984)
KNOLL. 1948.
18x14 1/4 inches, 45 3/4x36 1/4 cm. Condition B+: overpainting in image; overpainting and restoration at edges; red at top bleeding slightly into center image.
After establishing himself as a successful designer and photographer both in his native Switzerland and in the commercial world of New York City, Matter was hired by upstart furniture company Knoll as their primary graphic design consultant in 1946. Integrating varied artistic influences with his experience in photomontage, typography and commercial photography, Matter produced many stand-alone posters for Knoll during his 20-year tenure with the company. Unlike many of his other posters that feature specific furniture items, this small poster contains only the abstract suggestion of furniture in its geometric patterning, crediting the power of the brand's name with the saleable information. "His work applied the principles of modernism to commercial design and helped define the postwar aesthetic in the United States, and he counted as friends or collaborators such artists as Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock" (Guggenheim). Concurrently with his work at Knoll, Matter took on design and promotional projects with the Boston Museum of Art and the Guggenheim, perpetually fueling his designs with the evolving nature of modern art.
