The artist Gordon Matta-Clark's most famous instance of what he called “anarchitecture” amounted to cutting through an abandoned house, as one would a cake, and then tilting the two halves slightly so as to reveal a slim vertical “V” of empty space between them. However physically destructive his actions toward the built environment might have appeared, it was more semiotic (exploring the interweave between positive and negative space) than condemnatory—along the lines of the Surrealist Louis Aragon's more extreme statement that, artistically, the best architecture might be achieved by applying dynamite to a church.
Though it is a stretch to say whether contemporary artists who work with architecture have, in one way or another, followed Matta-Clark or Aragon, the relationship between architecture and art over the past half-century or so—beginning in the early days of Minimalism—has become more complex and more adversarial.
You have 0 complimentary articles remaining.
Unlimited access + premium benefits for as low as $1.99/month.