Barcelona’s Contemporary Art Museum (MACBA) to get a unique collection of Gordon Matta-Clark photos

Barcelona (ACN).- A collection of 46 photographs taken by Gordon Matta-Clark (New York, 1943-1978) capturing his famous ‘building cuts’ has been given a permanent home with the Foundation of Barcelona’s Contemporary Art Museum (MACBA). The art collector Harold Berg handed over the content of Florent Bex’s photo archive, which includes Matta-Clark’s captions of his ephemeral interventions in buildings. He was famous for deconstructing buildings in the 1970s, pulling down walls, ceilings and floors, as well as “cutting buildings”. The MACBA already had 13 videos and four photographs from the American artist. With the new images, MACBA becomes one of the main European museums with the artist's work. In 2012, the Barcelona art centre will organise a temporary exhibition on Matta-Clark.

The art collector Harold Berg purchased Florent Bex’s photo archive to include it in his LATA Collection, a collection with its origin in Latin America. The collection is made up of 46 works: 44 vintage black and white photos, printed in paper and with measuring 25x20 cm; one black and white negative; and one intervened slide. All the images were taken by Gordon Matta-Clark and captured his actions on buildings, his ‘building cuts’, which gave him an important role in the history of Contemporary Art.

The incorporation of Harold Berg’s collection comes at a time when MACBA has a strategy in place to enlarge its own collection through the MACBA Foundation. This has been key since the foundation’s creation, combining purchases with deposits and donations. The MACBA Foundation has already brought 1,500 works to the MACBA Collection.

The MACBA Foundation is a private institution, born in 1987 with the aim of building a significant artistic collection for the museum. It is chaired by Leopoldo Rodés. The MACBA Museum is run by a public consortium among Barcelona’s City Council, and the Catalan and Spanish Governments.