Ewald Mataré

Ewald Wilhelm Hubert Mataré (25 February 1887 in Burtscheid, Aachen – 28 March 1965 in Büderich) was a German painter and sculptor, who dealt with, among other things, the figures of men and animals in a stylized form.

After the Machtergreifung of 1933 however, all cultural and artistic life in Germany was brought into ideological alignment by the Nazis; Mataré was denounced as "degenerate" and expelled from his position.

One of his sculptures "Die Katze" (The cat) was placed into the exhibition of shame and derision "Entartete Kunst" (Degenerate Art) staged by the Nazis in Munich, 1937.

However he was active at the Academy – albeit in an off-site studio – for long enough to teach artists like Günter Haese, Erwin Heerich, Georg Meistermann, Hannes Rosenow, and, most famously, Joseph Beuys.

[2] During the post-war era, Mataré took many commissions from the public sector; he also worked on many churches, e.g. he built four doors for the south portal of the Cologne Cathedral.