Matta-Clark

Question 1: In Anne Wagner’s article on Matta-Clark’s Splitting, she mentioned that Matta-Clark cut off four corners of the house. According to the author, this shows that Splitting “concerns rather more than its signature slice.” She went on to say that this “speaks directly, if belated, to minimalist sculpture and does so in the context of the gallery.” Does this mean that Splitting is a critique of minimalism? Why is it “belated”? What is the meaning of “Instead of a cube, a corner; instead of one corner, the minimally requisite four.”? What is the reference here to the minimalist cube? (37)

Question 2: Dan Graham wrote that Matta-Clark’s work is a kind of “anti-monument”. It is “profoundly pessimistic”, “will be quickly demolished” and “is something of a useless gesture”. He claimed that Splitting “defies permanent symbolic form”. Yet many site specific artworks we’ve seen in the class are temporary, lasting for a few weeks. Are those works “anti-monument” also, since they are too “quickly demolished”? (199) Also, I don’t quite understand the idea of an “instant ruin”.