The son of Chilean painter Roberto Matta and North-American painter Anne Clark, Gordon Matta-Clark (New York, 1943-1978) had a brief but intense life. This multifaceted, intuitive artist with enormous energy and vitality burst onto the New York art scene in the sixties, bringing influences from Pop Art, Minimalism and Conceptualism. After coming into contact with artists from the land art movement, he developed an institutional critique based on group actions and experiences in public space.

Gordon Matta-Clark started by documenting abandoned buildings and soon began to act upon them, making large geometric incisions, holes or cut-outs. His interventions or “building cuts” entailed a renewal of sculptural language and a critique that did not just address modern architecture, but also capitalism and the North American way of life. In only eight years, from 1970 to 1978, Matta-Clark created a complex, radical and innovative body of work that has continued to influence subsequent generations of architects and visual artists.

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