The GFT Fish, 1985-86

Temple Shack, 1985

Known to the art public above all for the Guggenheim Museum building in Bilbao, Frank Gehry (Toronto, Canada, 1929), has always been stimulated by the language of contemporary artists. In particular, he has declared his methodological affinity with Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Donald Judd and Richard Serra.

His predisposition to transitoriness, traditionally antithetical to architectural language, is the result of his familiarity with performance art, for which Oldenburg is recognized as a leading figure.

In early 1984 Gehry began collaborating with Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen on a project conceived as a combination of architecture and theater, which then culminated in the performance Il Corso del Coltello / The Course of the Knife, which took place in Venice in 1985.