Overview

“To convert a place into a state of mind”

Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978) was a seminal figure in the downtown New York art scene in the 1970s with a storied practice that drew on his architectural education and traversed the genres of performance, conceptual, process, and land art, and laid the groundwork for social sculpture and social praxis as art making practice. 

 

Matta-Clark is best known for his ephemeral interventions in buildings slated for demolition. He physically deconstructed the spaces — cutting homes in half, extracting sections of the floor, and creating building-scale sculptures as he activated abandoned spaces through a unique practice of reduction and negation. In a practice of “anarchitecture” and with an eye toward what he termed “non-uments” he sawed through walls, transmuting vacant homes and warehouses into cathedrals and immersive installations with a poetic and creative relation to degeneration.

 

Matta-Clark’s work is represented in prominent public collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

 

Matta-Clark has been the subject of major retrospectives at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Whitney Museum, New York; Jeu de Paume, Paris and the subject of countless other major exhibitions. 

Exhibitions
Series
Works
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Office Baroque, c. 1977
    Office Baroque, c. 1977
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Study for Office Baroque, 1st. project, c. 1977
    Study for Office Baroque, 1st. project, c. 1977
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Office Baroque, 1977
    Office Baroque, 1977
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Office Baroque, 1977
    Office Baroque, 1977
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Office Baroque, 1977
    Office Baroque, 1977
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Office Baroque, 1977
    Office Baroque, 1977
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Office Baroque, 1977
    Office Baroque, 1977
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Office Baroque, 1977
    Office Baroque, 1977
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Office Baroque, 1977
    Office Baroque, 1977
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Office Baroque, 1977
    Office Baroque, 1977
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Office Baroque, 1977
    Office Baroque, 1977
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Office Baroque, 1977
    Office Baroque, 1977
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Office Baroque, 1977
    Office Baroque, 1977
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Office Baroque, 1977
    Office Baroque, 1977
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Poster for Office Baroque, 1977
    Poster for Office Baroque, 1977
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Study for "Office Baroque," first project, 1977
    Study for "Office Baroque," first project, 1977
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Study for "Office Baroque," first project, 1977
    Study for "Office Baroque," first project, 1977
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, City Slivers, 1976
    City Slivers, 1976
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Conical Intersect, 1975
    Conical Intersect, 1975
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Conical Intersect, 1975
    Conical Intersect, 1975
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting Book: Number 2 & 3, 1975
    Splitting Book: Number 2 & 3, 1975
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Bingo , 1974
    Bingo , 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Bingo , 1974
    Bingo , 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Bingo, 1974
    Bingo, 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Bingo, 1974
    Bingo, 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Bingo (Bingone), 1974
    Bingo (Bingone), 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Bingo (Gordon Matta-Clark filming Bingo), 1974
    Bingo (Gordon Matta-Clark filming Bingo), 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Bingo X Ninths, 1974
    Bingo X Ninths, 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Bingo X Ninths, 1974
    Bingo X Ninths, 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting, 1974
    Splitting, 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting, 1974
    Splitting, 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting, 1974
    Splitting, 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting, 1974
    Splitting, 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting, 1974
    Splitting, 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting BOOK (1/2), 1974
    Splitting BOOK (1/2), 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting BOOK (2/2), 1974
    Splitting BOOK (2/2), 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting Book, Uncut book pages, 1974
    Splitting Book, Uncut book pages, 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting Book: Number 23, 1974
    Splitting Book: Number 23, 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting Book: Number 29, 31, 1974
    Splitting Book: Number 29, 31, 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting Interior, 1974
    Splitting Interior, 1974
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Bronx Floor: Boston Road, 1973
    Bronx Floor: Boston Road, 1973
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Bronx Floor: Floor Hole, 1973
    Bronx Floor: Floor Hole, 1973
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Bronx Floor: Floor Hole, 1973
    Bronx Floor: Floor Hole, 1973
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Wallspaper BOOK (1/2), 1973
    Wallspaper BOOK (1/2), 1973
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Wallspaper BOOK (2/2), 1973
    Wallspaper BOOK (2/2), 1973
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Bronx Floors (Object), 1972
    Bronx Floors (Object), 1972
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Bronx Floors (Object), 1972
    Bronx Floors (Object), 1972
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Invitation to 112 Greene Street Exhibition, 1972
    Invitation to 112 Greene Street Exhibition, 1972
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Walls, 1972
    Walls, 1972
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Walls, 1972
    Walls, 1972
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Walls, 1972
    Walls, 1972
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Walls, 1972
    Walls, 1972
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Walls, 1972
    Walls, 1972
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Walls, 1972
    Walls, 1972
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Walls, 1972
    Walls, 1972
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Walls, 1972
    Walls, 1972
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Walls, 1972
    Walls, 1972
  • Gordon Matta-Clark, Walls (Wallspaper Book Cover Test Print), 1972
    Walls (Wallspaper Book Cover Test Print), 1972
News