Gordon Matta-Clark (June 22, 1943 – August 27, 1978) was an American artist best known for his site-specific artworks he made in the 1970s. He is famous for his "building cuts," a series of works in abandoned buildings in which he variously removed sections of floors, ceilings, and walls.
Life and Work
Gordon Matta-Clark studied architecture at Cornell University, but did not practice as a conventional architect. He also spent a year studying French literature at the Sorbonne in Paris and was in Paris during the student strikes of 1968. It was in Paris that he became aware of the French deconstructionist philosophers and Guy Debord and the Situationists. These cultural and political radicals developed the concept of détournement, or "the reuse of pre-existing artistic elements in a new ensemble." Such concepts would later inform his work. He is most famous for works that radically altered existing structures. His "building cuts" (in which, for example, a house is cut in half vertically) alter the perception of the building and its surrounding environment.
Matta-Clark used a number of media to document his work, including film, video, and photography. His work includes performance and recycling pieces, space and texture works, and his "building cuts."
In 1971 Matta-Clark founded Food, in SoHo, New York, a restaurant managed and staffed by artists. The first of its kind in SoHo, Food became well known among artists and was a central meeting-place for groups such as the Philip Glass Ensemble, Mabou Mines, and the dancers of Grand Union.
Both of Matta-Clark's parents were artists: the Chilean Surrealist painter Roberto Matta and American Anne Clark.
Influences on Contemporary Artists
Matta-Clark's "cuts" inspired, among other contemporary artists, Brian Jungen, from British Columbia, Canada. Jungen recycles goods from a globalized consumer market and transforms them into objects that evoke a specific cultural tradition based in part on his Dunne-za First Nations background, as in his series "Prototypes of New Understanding."
Matta-Clark's excavation pieces and fascination for the underground also inspired Belgian performance artist Danny Devos in his piece "Diggin' for Gordon," in which Devos digs a hole at a secret location. The piece is visible to the audience only via a webcam.
Matta-Clark's public interventions such as his "cuts" can been seen as the precursor to Street installation. American artist Cristopher Cichocki[1] produces unsanctioned public works within sites of urban abandonment and credits Matta-Clark as one of his major influences.
