Gordon Matta-Clark: Architectural intervention

Today, the rapid development of art has resulted in various artistic styles that are extremely innovative and unique. This wave of innovation encompasses many mediums, including digital art, architecture, painting, and olfactory art. Among the most innovative artists of the 20th-century, Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978), an American artist, cuts buildings in half.

Born in New York to Chilean surreal artist Roberto Matta and American artist Anne Clark, Matta-Clark is recognized as a central figure of the 1970s New York art scene. Throughout his artistic career he treated buildings as his artistic medium and created a series of works that entailed physically cutting through buildings to create large-scale architectural sculptures. For most of his works, he dissected buildings, decontextualizing them into stunning sculptures. In the beginning, he started this process by cutting small rectangular holes into the floors and walls of abandoned buildings. However, as time went by, his process grew in complexity and scale.

Now, his work has come to Shanghai—from November 7, 2019 to February 16, 2020, the Power Station of Art will host an exhibition of his work, “Passing Through Architecture: The 10 Years of Gordon Matta-Clark,” for public viewing. The exhibition traces the avant-garde works of this artist from 1968 to 1978 with more than 400 drawings, photographs, films, and archival documents, including around 180 private drawings and sketches of projects that Gordon never publicized during his lifetime nor carried out. Throughout the exhibition, the visitors are able to appreciate the delicate sketches of his architectural interventions and learn how the complexity of his drawings and artistic techniques developed over time. 

The Power Station of Art is also showcasing other exhibitions such as “Emerging Curators Project” and “The Return of Guests: Selections from m the PSA Collection.” The address for the Power Station of Arts is 678 Miaojiang Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai, 200011. For additional information, please check out this website.

Featured Image—SPLITTING Courtesy Gordon Matta-Clarkne

By Amy Kang