“I want to propose that New York 211, New York 215, and New York 216 are not abstractions without referents, but instead are highly referential: they are photographs of another artist’s work. In the early-to-mid seventies, Gordon Matta-Clark, who trained as an architect at Cornell University, was developing an avant-garde multidisciplinary artistic practice that spanned performance, film, an photography. In his short career, his most prominent works were his “building cuts,” large geometrical excisions he made in abandoned buildings. In 1975, he made massive cuts in the building on Pier 52 in Manhattan, with the ostensible intention to convert the structure into an urban park, a “sun and water temple.” Through the punctured western wall, the colors of the sunset and their shifting reflections on the Hudson River penetrated the building’s dark interior. Matta-Clark titled the piece Day’s End. This is the site that I believe Siskind photographed to create the three images in question.”