Gordon Matta Clark Artist
Gordon matta clark was an american artist and architect known for his large scale projects.
Gordon matta clark artist. Beginning in 1962 matta clark studied architecture at cornell university ithaca new york. Gordon matta clark born gordon roberto echaurren matta. A new iteration of garbage wall created with 21st century trash and the help of local teens stands on the.
A central figure of the downtown new york art scene in the 1970s gordon matta clark 1943 1978 pioneered a radical approach to art making that directly engaged the urban environment and the communities within it. He is considered among the most prominent artists of 1970s. From 1963 to 1968 he attended cornell university to study architecture.
Gordon matta clark was an american photographer and artist who lived from 1943 until 1978. Known best for his building cuts large scale sculptural forms he achieved by cutting into existing architecture matta clark sought to create new. 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.
Through his many projectsincluding large scale architectural interventions in which he physically cut through buildings slated for demolitionmatta clark developed a singular and prodigious oeuvre that critically examined the structures of the built environment. Dealing with themes of metamorphosis and resistance towards the commodification of art matta clark produced interventions in architectural structures he called anarchitecture. His parents belonged to the art world as well as his brother who committed suicide two years before matta clarks death.
People called him an urban alchemist says jessamyn fiore independent curator and co director of the gordon matta clark estate and the co organizer with curator antonio sergio bessa of gordon matta clark. Anarchitect which opens at the bronx museum of the arts next week. His famed building cuts involved carefully cleaving through part or all of an abandoned structure removing sections of floors ceilings and walls.
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. Over the course of his brief frenetic career gordon matta clark produced works of art that reflect his belief in the power of transformationthat the world around us is not fixed or concrete but brimming with untapped potential. 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.
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.