Gordon Matta-Clark - Anarchitect

"Undoing is just as much a democratic right as doing."---Gordon Matta-ClarkThis revealing book looks at the groundbreaking work of Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978), whose socially conscious practice blurred the boundaries between contemporary art and architecture. After completing a degree in architecture at Cornell University, Matta-Clark returned to his home city of New York. There he employed the term "anarchitecture," combining "anarchy" and "architecture," to describe the site-specific works he initially realized in the South Bronx.The borough's many abandoned buildings, the result of economic decline and middle-class flight, served as Matta-Clark's raw material. His series Cuts dissected these structures, performing an anatomical study of the ravaged urban landscape. Moving from New York to Paris with Conical Intersect, a piece that became emblematic of artistic protest, Matta-Clark applied this same method to a pair of 17th-century row houses slated for demolition as a result of the Centre Pompidou's construction. This compelling volume grounds Matta-Clark's practice against the framework of architectural and urban history, stressing his pioneering activist-inspired approach, as well as his contribution to the nascent fields of social practice and relational aesthetics.Published in association with The Bronx Museum of the ArtsExhibition Schedule:Bronx Museum of the Arts(11/08/17-04/08/18)Jeu de Paume, Paris(06/04/18-09/23/18)Kumu Kunstimuuseum, Tallinn, Estonia(03/01/19-08/04/19)Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA(09/12/19-12/15/2019)

Product details

• Authors: Antonio Sergio Bessa, Antonio Sergio Fiore Bessa, Antonio Sergio/ Fiore Bessa, Bessa Antonio Sergio, Jessamyn Fiore
• Publisher: Yale University Press Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.11.2017
• EAN: 9780300230437
• ISBN: 978-0-300-23043-7
• No. of pages: 184
• Dimensions: 200 mm x 265 mm x 18 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > General, dictionaries; ART / History / Contemporary (1945-), ART / Individual Artists / Monographs, ART / Conceptual, History of Art, Individual artists, art monographs, Art & Design Styles: Conceptual Art