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• 1 media/mattaclark.jpg 2019-11-28T16:38:02-08:00 Anti-Architecture 20 An introduction to the American Anarchitecture movement, spearheaded by our primary subject of analysis, Gordon Matta-Clark plain 2020-07-26T20:55:29-07:00 In the late 1960's and early 1970's United States, Federal Modernism was the ruling style for buildings of all types. Square, tall, efficient, made of glass and concrete, these Modernist creations were the pinnacle of American technology. Skyscrapers touched the sky and offices were made up of brutally efficient cubicles overseen by the manager's panopticon. This was the world that Gordon Matta-Clark entered into when he graduated from Cornell University as an architect; this was the world that inspired Matta-Clark to drop his career and become an artist.
  
  Anarchitecture, a portmanteau of Anarchy and Architecture, as well as an abbreviation of Anti-Architecture, was founded by Gordon Matta-Clark in the United States alongside his American peers, and is widely recognized as an American style. Its uniquely surreal style is defined by creativity, empty spaces, Escherian geometry and dramatic performance, a combination so uniquely impractical that it has to belong to the rebellious 1970s. However, As much as Matta-Clarke and the movement he spawned was influenced by the social overturn of the United States, as son to famous artist Roberto Matta and one of Chile's most famous muralistas, Matta-Clark also had clear ties to the artistic scene in Chile; to what extent might this have influenced the development of Anarchitecture?
  
  What will become clear through the course of this analysis is that the four principles of Anarchitecture mentioned above each have their origin in the unique artistic movements of 20th Century Chile, and that one of New York's most iconic styles may actually be more South American than North American.