13 Facts About Gordon Matta-Clark

Gordon Matta-Clark was a pioneer in the field of socially engaged food art.

Gordon Matta-Clark was the godson of Marcel Duchamp's wife, Teeny.

Gordon Matta-Clark studied architecture at Cornell University from 1962 to 1968, including a year at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he studied French literature.

In 1971, he changed his name to Gordon Matta-Clark, adopting his mother's last name.

Gordon Matta-Clark did not practice as a conventional architect; he worked on what he referred to as "Anarchitecture".

Gordon Matta-Clark used a number of media to document his work, including film, video, and photography.

Gordon Matta-Clark's work includes performance art and recycling pieces, space and texture works, and his building cuts.

Gordon Matta-Clark used puns and other word games as a way to re-conceptualize preconditioned roles and relationships.

Gordon Matta-Clark, who lived in Ithaca, New York at the time, was invited by Sharp to help the artists in Earth Art with the on-site execution of their works for the exhibition.

Sharp then encouraged Gordon Matta-Clark to move to New York City where he introduce him to members of the postminimal New York art world, featured him in Avalanche Magazine.

Gordon Matta-Clark documented them through photographs, maps, bureaucratic records and deeds, and spoke and wrote about them - but was not able to occupy these residual elements of zoning irregularities in any other way.

Gordon Matta-Clark died from pancreatic cancer on August 27,1978, aged 35, in New York City.

The Gordon Matta-Clark Archive is housed at the Canadian Centre for Architecture im Montreal.