Mary Jane Jacob
Gordon Matta-Clark: A Retrospective.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 1985. First edition. Essay by Robert Pincus-Witten and interviews conducted by Joan Simon. 0933856202 152 pages.
Large-format softcover volume, measuring approximately 10.75" x 12.25", shows very light shelfwear. Binding is sound. Pages are clean and bright.
Catalogue of an exhibition held at Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), May 8-  August 18, 1986.
"Gordon Matta-Clark's art and life were inseparable and fascinating: son of the Surrealist painter Matta; trained as an architect; carver of entire buildings; cofounder of the SoHo restaurant Food; survivor (briefly) of the suicide of his twin brother, also an artist; victim of cancer at age 35. He was a compelling personality and an artist whose searchings were emblematic of his generation.
Matta-Clark was among those at the center of the avant-garde at the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s. War, political and racial assassinations and street riots, conflict between generations, all contributed to the feeling that a new order was evolving. Matta-Clark sensed both the dissolution of the old and the invigoration of seeking the new. He was always searching, whether for new forms of art, his place as an artist vis-a-vis his celebrated father, or his role as a son.
Startlingly new materials, processes, and images appear throughout Matta-Clark's work. He blended aspects of Minimalism, Earth Art, Conceptual Art, and Performance Art with a hight point of Post-Formalist personal feeling. He proceeded like an inspired alchemist -- experimenting, remaking what art can be, and turning unexpected things, acts, and sites into poetic and memorable aesthetic experiences.
The Museum of Contemporary Art is proud to present an exhibition and a publication that document the unusual works of this extraordinary artist, particularly since his final project, "Circus or The Caribbean Orange," was constructed in the Museum itself, in the adjacent annex, just prior to its incorporation into the MCA's expanded space."
(I. Michael Danoff, from the his foreword)