Gordon Matta Clark Architecture
A central figure of the downtown new york art scene in the 1970s matta clark directly engaged the urban environment and the communities within it.
Gordon matta clark architecture. Matta clark the son of artists roberto matta and anna louise clark studied architecture at cornell in the late 1960s a period of dissolution disillusionment and protest. Gordon matta clarks anti establishment suspicion of the worlds of art and architecture illustrated by his involvement in the anarchitecture group led to some of the most innovative works of conceptual art of the 20th century. Gordon matta clark was an american artist and architect known for his large scale projects.
The most famous of these was splitting 1974 an intervention in which the artist sawed out a gaping vertical segment from the middle of a wood frame house in suburban new jersey. Dealing with themes of metamorphosis and resistance towards the commodification of art matta clark produced interventions in architectural structures he called anarchitecture. The 10 years of gordon matta clark will trace the artists radical approach to art making from 1968 to 1978 through more than four hundred drawings photo works films and archival documents.
Instead he used architecture as a base for artistic explorations of space. A prolific body of work that spanned a decade matta clark studied architecture at cornell but was frustrated by its pedagogical hierarchies. Gordon matta clark born gordon roberto echaurren matta.
The gordon matta clark archive is housed at the canadian centre for architecture montreal. Beginning in 1962 matta clark studied architecture at cornell university ithaca new york. He was survived by his widow jane crawford.
Gordon matta clark 1943 1978 is best known for his cuttings and reflections on anarchitecture starting in new yorks downtown soho district in the early 1970s he cut into buildings as if drawing freely in space producing some of the most celebrated artworks that continue to inspire generations of artists and architects today.