Gehry's style at times seems unfinished or even crude, but his work is consistent with the California "funk" art movement of the 1960s and early 1970s, which featured the use of inexpensive found objects and nontraditional media such as clay to make serious art. His works always have at least some element of deconstructivism; he has been called "the apostle of chain-link fencing and corrugated metal siding".Adams, B. (1988) "Frank Gehry's Merzbau". Art in America 76: pp.139–144 However, a retrospective exhibit at New York's Whitney Museum in 1988 revealed that he is also a sophisticated classical artist who knows European art history and contemporary sculpture and painting.
Gehry's style at times seems unfinished or even crude, but his work is consistent with the California "funk" art movement of the 1960s and early 1970s, which featured the use of inexpensive found objects and nontraditional media such as clay to make serious art. His works always have at least some element of deconstructivism; he has been called "the apostle of chain-link fencing and corrugated metal siding".Adams, B. (1988) "Frank Gehry's Merzbau". Art in America 76: pp.139–144 However, a retrospective exhibit at New York's Whitney Museum in 1.988 revealed that he is also a sophisticated classical artist who knows European art history and contemporary sculpture and painting.