Career
Mataré began his instruction as an artist at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin in 1907. He was a student of Professor Julius Ehrentraut (b 1841), Lovis Corinth (1858–1925), and History painter Arthur Kampf.
In 1918, he joined the November Group.
Mataré first dedicated himself to sculpture after finishing his painting studies. A great part of his sculpted work are of animal figures.
In 1932 he received a professorship at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. 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. Church commissions became his sole source of income. At 37 years old, Mataré entered into a deep depression.
With her he had a daughter, Sonja Beatrice (b 9 August 1926).
Mataré died in 1965 from a pulmonary embolism.