A central figure of the downtown New York art scene in the 1970s, Gordon Matta-Clark pioneered a radical approach to art making that directly engaged the urban environment and the communities within it.
Some of his most renowned work included large-scale architectural interventions in which he physically cut through buildings slated for demolition. Touted as one of the most influential contemporary artists of his generation - his work ‘Split’ (1974), in which he physically cut a house in two pieces, was selected by The New York Times as one of 25 works of art that defined the contemporary age. His work has involved performance art, film, video and photography.