Passing through moving in and getting away with it.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Matta-Clark, Gordon, 1943-1978

Contributor:

Fogelson, Gary, editor.

De Angelis, Bella, assistant editor.

Bessa, Antonio Sergio, text.

Lethem, Jonathan, text.

Other Means, design.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Matta-Clark, Gordon, 1943-1978.

Matta-Clark, Gordon.

Art, American--20th century.

Art, American.

Photographers--United States.

Photographers.

Graffiti--New York (State)--New York.

Graffiti.

Street art--New York (State)--New York.

Street art.

New York (State)--New York.

United States.

Genre:

artists' books (books)

photobooks.

Artists' books

Photobooks

Artists' books.

Photobooks.

Physical Description:

1006 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

illustration

Edition:

First printing

Place of Publication:

New York : O M Books, 2025.

Summary:

From 1972 to 1973, Gordon Matta-Clark took over fifteen hundred photographs of graffiti in New York City. These pictures are some of the earliest documentation of an emerging art form, and are an under-recognized body of work from Matta-Clark -- an artist who used the city's crumbling infrastructure to reveal the social and political implications of architecture and urban design. This publication features every frame from every roll of film Matta-Clark shot, organized according to the sequence of contact sheets in the artist's archive. Taken together, these pictures demonstrate Matta-Clark's obsession with the graffiti that had exploded across the city's walls, subways, and buses, and show him growing bolder as he moved from photographing on the streets and subway platforms, to trespassing in outer borough train yards. While he was out on these documentary missions, Matta-Clark also photographed abandoned architecture, infrastructure, and the social life of the city. Those pictures are included as well, as they show the relationship between graffiti and themes that are more commonly associated with the artist's work. An essay by Antonio Sergio Bessa and a text by Jonathan Lethem accompany the photographs.

Notes:

"Gordon Matta-Clark, New York City graffiti photographs, 1972-73" -- Cover

"This book's title borrows language from a text Gordon Matta-Clark wrote in a 1970 notebook (catalog ref. #PHCON2002:0016:025): KEEPING EYES OPEN FOR / A NEW HIT / THE JOY OF GETTING AWAY WITH IT / A COMPLETE DEVOTION TO GETTING AWAY WITH IT / PASSING THROUGH MOVING IN / AND GETTING AWAY WITH IT"-- Colophon.

"Gordon Matta-Clark celebrated graffiti as a transgressive, anti-authoritarian act that shared many of the qualities he was exploring in his own work. The title of this publication comes from a text he wrote in a notebook a few years before he started taking these photographs. He could be describing his own artistic process, or the experience of a kid sneaking into a subway tunnel late at night with a can of pant: PASSING THROUGH THE BOUNDARIES / PASSING AWAY WITH A PIECE TO GO / CHOOSING AND CLEARING OUT. A CRITICAL POINT IN / STRESS AND WORKING BETWEEN [FAILURE / AND MINIMALISM] REDUCTION AND / COLLAPSE. KEEPING EYES OPEN FOR / A NEW HIT / THE JOY OF GETTING AWAY WITH IT / A COMPLETE DEVOTION TO GETTING AWAY WITH IT / PASSING THROUGH MOVING IN / AND GETTING AWAY WITH IT"-- Publisher's website.

ISBN:

9798988796039

OCLC:

1547390274