Gordon Matta-Clark

Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1977

Düsseldorf, Städtische Kunsthalle, One for All, All for One, 1979

The following three lots depict three seminal projects by Gordon Matta-Clark executed between 1973-1977, spanning the artist’s short but explosive career. These three colour cibachrome prints are powerful visual recordings and a testament to what has become the artist’s signature working practice of physically slicing architectural facades and altering the interiors of houses and buildings. In each of these works, Matta-Clark introduces the dramatic cuts and incisions into the flat surface of walls and floors as a technique of sculpture, believing them not to be destructive negative marks, but rather seeing them as creations of new spatial dimensions.

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist and dated 11/15/77

Office Baroque, a project undertaken in 1977, in Antwerp is perhaps his most ambitious building intervention and certainly his most conceptually complex project. Using an empty five storey office building from the 1930’s, Matta-Clark designed a sphere biting into the corner of the office block that extended from street level to the full sub-attic height of the building. The previous occupants had since gone bankrupt and his title for the piece is typically a pun on “office-went-broke”. In the present lot, we witness a striking view of the finished project through the central intersection looking down five floors from the roof.