Gordon Matta-Clark, Day’s End (1975), via Art Observed

Featuring one hundred artworks by Gordon Matta-Clark, Jeu de Paume anchors its summer offering with a show dedicated to the artist’s equally enigmatic and engaging practice, one that worked through principles of urban encounter, agency and abstraction with a unique sense of humor.  The show, titled Anarchitect explores the importance of Matta-Clark’s practice towards a rethinking of architecture after modernism. Embracing a diversity of media that include photography, film and printmaking, the exhibition features a number of works related to contemporary urban culture that further contextualize Gordon Matta-Clark’s compelling critique of architecture. (more…)

Gordon Matta-Clark, Conical Intersect (1975), via Marian Goodman

Reflecting on the far-reaching impact of artist Gordon Matta-Clark’s career, Marian Goodman Gallery has opened an exhibition of works by the American artist, combining collages, drawings, video and other works that trace the artist’s enigmatic explorations of space and use, and the artist’s place as a negotiator between these states of stillness and movement.

Gordon Matta-Clark, Cut Drawing (1974), via Marian Goodman

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Gordon Matta-Clark, Energy & Abstraction (Installation View)

Mystery, stemming from associations with the notion of void, always played a crucial role in opulent practice of Gordon Matta-Clark.  Differing from the often massively-sized voids he created in or between buildings before their demolition throughout his career, however, the pen and ink works currently on view at David Zwirner’s 20th street location appears as an almost direct response, although on a much more manageable scale.  Blank paper surfaces submit to restless marks of ink in splashes of color or stark black hues, signaling complex narratives behind the artist’s demanding projects, while deep carvings on gesso expose concealed layers that otherwise would go unnoticed when compared to his immense carvings through the architectural skeletons of buildings. (more…)

Cleveland’s Museum of Contemporary Art will open to the public tomorrow with exhibitions of the work of David ­Altmejd, David Hammons, Katherina Grosse and Gordon Matta-Clark. The director of the museum is Jill Snyder. The architect, Farshid Moussavi, designed the building to change depending on conditions of light and atmosphere. “MOCA Cleveland isn’t a grand museum with a historical collection; it’s all about temporary exhibitions, which change constantly—so does contemporary art, and so should the architecture.”  (more…)

Image: Now I am quietly waiting… (Exhibition View), Bortolami Gallery

The long, arresting title of Tom Burr’s first show as a curator for Bortolami Gallery takes its inspiration from the poem “Mayakovsky” by Frank O’Hara.  In the poem, the author delves into the nature of one’s own identity, and the relationship to other, separate, identities that surround us in our daily lives.  Taking this text as a jumping off point, Tom Burr has assembled a selection of works that are interconnected by his relationships to their creators, be they personal, professional, or merely tangential.

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‪‬Gordon Matta-Clark 1976 film ‘City Slivers’ to screen on 22nd street building via High Line Channel [AO Newslink]

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Gordon Matta-Clark, Office Baroque (view of second floor & removed section), 1977, 10 x 8 inches, via Galerie Thomas Schulte.

Currently on view at Galerie Thomas Schulte (in partnership with Florent Bex), is a rare collection of works documenting one of Gordon Matta-Clark’s last building interventions, Office Baroque (1977).  The Antwerp office structure was legally secured for Matta-Clark’s building cuts, which—in contrast with pieces like Bingo (Bin.go.ne) (1974) bulldozed by authorities immediately upon completion, or Day’s End (Pier 52) (1975), for which the artist repeatedly evaded police arrest—allowed for ample opportunity to record the alterations Matta-Clark executed.  Three rooms reveal photography, photo collage and film, on loan from public and private collections, much of which has never before been published.

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Bread or Alive (2004) by Johannes Deinmling, via Kunstalle Dusseldorf

Currently showing at the Kunstalle Dusseldorf is “Eating the Universe. Food in Art.” The exhibit reflects on the term “Eat Art” coined by Swiss Artist Daniel Spoerri after he opened his restaurant in Burgplatz in Dusseldorf proceeded to found the Eat Art Gallery in 1970. The gallery inspired artists to produce works out of edible materials and food wastes. The exhibition’s title “Eating the Universe” was first used by Peter Kulbelka, former professor for film and cooking at the Studeschule in Frankfurt, for his 1970’s TV show on cooking as an art form. “Eating the Universe. Food in Art” reveals the continual link between food and art and their joint impact on life.

A Visitor looks at Thomas Rentmeister’s Untitled (2007) made of sugar and a shopping cart, via Artdaily

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Splitting, 1974 All images via Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes unless otherwise noticed

On November 11, a comprehensive retrospective of Gordon Matta-Clark, (1943-1978) opened at The National Museum of Fine Arts of Santiago, Chile. The first Latin American tribute to the legacy of Matta-Clark, who rose to prominence in 1970’s with his site- specific artwork, the show was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts of Lima, Peru, and is curated by Gabriela Rangel, director of the Department of Visual Arts at Americas Society in New York.

Gordon Matta-Clark working on Graffiti Truck, New York, 1971

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Bruce Nauman, Self Portrait as a Fountain (Eleven Color Photographs) Courtesy of Whitney Museum

Investigating photography in the Whitney’s collection, Photoconceptualism 1966-1973 is the last in a three-part series of installments. The recognition of the mediums of video and photography as fit for Conceptual artwork was at its height in the 60s and 70s. Works are being shown on the mezzanine level of the Whitney Museum in a small one room gallery. Some of the artists presented are Adrian Piper, Bruce Nauman, Ed Ruscha, Gordon Matta-Clark, Mel Bochner and Michael Heizer. The show will be over September 20, 2009

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Edward Ruscha, Universal Studios, Universal City (Thirtyfour Parking Lots in Los Angeles) courtesy of Whitney Museum of American Art

Related Links:
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Photoconceptualism 1966-1973 [Whitney Museum]
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Photoconceptualism 1966-1973 [DLK Collection]
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Now at the Whitney: Photoconceptualism, 1966-1973 [Fanzine]

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Untitled (mattress) (1991) by Rachel Whiteread, via The Museum of Modern Art

Brazilian Photographer Vik Muniz has curated an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art featuring approximately 80 works from the museum’s collection, including those by Eugène Atget, John Baldessari, Marcel Duchamp, Nan Goldin, Gordon Matta-Clark, Pablo Picasso, Dieter Rams, and Rachel Whiteread. The exhibit is part of Artist’s Choice, a series of exhibitions where an artist becomes a curator using selected works from the Museum of Modern Art’s Collection.

Muniz often questions the traditions and symbolism of visual representation by contrasting unlikely materials to depict subjects in his photographs. In this exhibition he has similarly brought works together out of their normal museological classification, thus allowing the viewer to create their own visual interpretation of artworks based on various linkages and connections. For the show’s theme, he employs a rebus, a puzzle that uses carefully connected images and symbols to create a phrase or a sentence. Instead of forming a sentence, he organizes the artworks by linking them through similarities in material, subject matter, technique, and form.

Artist’s Choice: Rebus, Vik Muniz
Museum of Modern Art
New York, New York
through February 23, 2009
Exhibition Page: Artist’s Choice: Rebus, Vik Muniz
Press: ‘Art’s Choice + Muniz = Rebus’- Connecting the Dots at the Museum of Modern Art New York [New York Times]
Vik Muniz on Guest-Curating his MoMA Show, ‘Rebus’ [New York Mag]
Vik Muniz Creates Rebus, an Inventive Narrative of Works from MoMA’s Collection [ArtDaily]

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