Biography
Wanda Miller Matthews was born in Barry, Illinois, September 15, 1930. She received her BFA degree from Bradley University in 1952 and her MFA degree from the University of Iowa in 1957. Matthews was a graduate assistant in printmaking at the University of Iowa from 1956-57. She was awarded two grants by the Louis C. Tiffany Foundation in 1957 and 1958. From 1957 to 1960, she lived and worked in Rome, Italy. After extensive travel in Europe, she established a studio in Boulder, Colorado in 1961 where she lived for many years. Matthews died November 24, 2001.
Matthews received numerous exhibition awards from such groups as the National Association of Women Artists and the Society of American Graphic Artists. Several of her prints were purchased by the Library of Congress from their National Print Exhibitions. Matthews’ art is in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Boston Public Library, Joslyn Art Museum of Omaha, Nebraska, and Neiman Marcus, Palo Alto, California. She has participated in many one-woman shows as well as international and national exhibitions.
Matthews’ color intaglio print, “Umbria,” was given a purchase award at the Fine Arts Festival Exhibition held April 24 to 30, 1960. She said of the print that it was very widely exhibited and won several purchase awards including the Gropper Art Galleries Purchase Award in the Boston Printmakers 12th Annual National Exhibition in 1959. She also noted that it is in the collections of the Library of Congress, Los Angeles County Museum, Ohio University School of Painting Collection (Athens, Ohio), and Central Michigan University (Mount Pleasant, Michigan).
Source of Biography
American Prints in the Library of Congress: a Catalog of the Collection (1970);
Printworld Directory of Contemporary Prints & Prices ;
Who’s Who in American Art; Cuba, Stanley L., “Wanda Miller Matthews,” Southwest Art (November 1990), 88-92