Gordon Matta-Clark

This catalogue covers the brief but groundbreaking career of the self-proclaimed "anarchitect" Gordon Matta-Clark (1943–1978), one of the most influential American artists of the 1970s. The immense ambition and scale of his projects, and their fearless reimagining of the urban landscape, challenged city-dwellers to reconsider the very notion of built structure and the fragility of seemingly unassailable edifices. Matta-Clark’s first interventions took place in abandoned, derelict structures, upon which he performed his famous "building cuts" and "intersects." First published in 2008 (for a show at SMS Contemporanea in Siena), and organized thematically and chronologically, this substantial volume looks at these and other bodies of work, such as the Food restaurant, the performances, the "estates" and the artist’s pursuit of alternative economical housing. The catalogue also includes a filmography and critical essays, plus an interview done by Judith Russi Kirshner in 1978.

Contents

Gordon Matta-Clark: nothing is created, nothing is destroyed, everything is transformed
Lorenzo Fusi

Gordon Matta-Clark: in context Jane Crawford

The middle of nowhere: Gordon Matta-Clark and the terrain vague
James Attlee

Amphion in Prometheus’ city. Notes on Gordon Matta-Clark’s artistic practice
Marco Pierini

Seeing Matta-Clark through architecture, seeing architecture through Matta-Clark: the archive at the Canadian Centre for Architecture
Louise Désy and Gwendolyn Owens

Interview with Gordon Matta-Clark by Judith Russi Kirshner, February 1978

Exhibitions
Bibliography