Matthew Barney

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Matthew Barney

Matthew Barney at the Hirshhorn talking with Nancy Spector (contemporary art curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum).
Born March 25, 1967 (1967-03-25) (age 42)
San Francisco, California, United States
Occupation Artist
Partner Bjork
Children Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir

Matthew Barney is an American artist who works in sculpture, photography, drawing and film. His early works were sculptural installations combined with performance and video. Between 1994 and 2002 he created the Cremaster Cycle, a series of five feature-length films described by Jonathan Jones in The Guardian as "one of the most imaginative and brilliant achievements in the history of avant-garde cinema."[1]

Contents

[edit] Life

He was born March 25, 1967, in San Francisco, California. He lived in Boise, Idaho from 1973 to 1985 where he attended primary and secondary school. In 1989, he graduated from Yale University, New Haven. His earliest works, created at Yale, were staged at the university’s athletic complex.

[edit] Drawing Restraint (1987 - )

The ongoing Drawing Restraint series was begun in 1987 as a series of studio experiments, drawing upon an athletic model of development in which growth occurs only through restraint: the muscle encounters resistance, becomes engorged and is broken down, and in healing becomes stronger. In literally restraining the body while attempting to make a drawing, Drawing Restraints 1- 6 (1987 - 89) were documented with video and photography. Drawing Restraint 7 marks the influx of narrative and characterization, resulting in a three channel video and series of drawings and photographs, for which Barney was awarded the Aperto prize in the 1993 Venice Biennale. A series of ten vitrines containing drawings, Drawing Restraint 8 was included in the 2003 Venice Biennale and prefigured the narrative development for Drawing Restraint 9 (2005). A major project consisting of a feature-length film with soundtrack composed by Björk, large-scale sculptures, photographs and drawings, Drawing Restraint 9 was built upon themes such as the Shinto religion, the tea ceremony, the history of whaling, and the supplantation of blubber with refined petroleum for oil. Drawing Restraints 10 - 16 (2005 - 07) are site-specific performances that recall the earlier Yale pieces.

[edit] The Cremaster Cycle (1994 - 2002)

Barney's epic Cremaster cycle (1994–2002) is a self-enclosed aesthetic system consisting of five feature-length films that explore processes of creation. Barney’s long-time collaborator Jonathan Bepler composed and arranged the films’ soundtracks. The cycle unfolds not just cinematically, but also through the photographs, drawings, sculptures, and installations the artist produces in conjunction with each episode. Its conceptual departure point is the male cremaster muscle, which controls testicular contractions in response to external stimuli. The project is rife with anatomical allusions to the position of the reproductive organs during the embryonic process of sexual differentiation: Cremaster 1 represents the most "ascended" or undifferentiated state, Cremaster 5 the most "descended" or differentiated. The cycle repeatedly returns to those moments during early sexual development in which the outcome of the process is still unknown—in Barney's metaphoric universe, these moments represent a condition of pure potentiality. As the cycle evolved over eight years, Barney looked beyond biology as a way to explore the creation of form, employing narrative models from other realms, such as biography, mythology, and geology. The photographs, drawings, and sculptures radiate outward from the narrative core of each film installment. Barney's photographs—framed in plastic and often arranged in diptychs and triptychs that distill moments from the plot—often emulate classical portraiture. His graphite and petroleum jelly drawings represent key aspects of the project's conceptual framework.[2]

Most recently, Barney has explored live performance before an audience. The pieces Ren and Guardian of the Veil revisit the language of the Cremaster Cycle, via a ritualistic exploration of Egyptian symbolism inspired by Norman Mailer's novel Ancient Evenings.

[edit] Prizes

[edit] See also

Barney, Matthew. Cremaster 1. Kunsthalle Wien, Museum für Gegenwartskunst Basel 1997 ISBN: 3852470137

Barney, Matthew. Cremaster 2. KWalker Art Center, Minneapolis 1999 ISBN: 9780935640649

Barney, Matthew. Cremaster 3. Guggenheim, dist. by D.A.P. 2002. photogs. ISBN: 0-89207-253-9.

Barney, Matthew. Cremaster 4. Fondation Cartier, Paris and Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York 1995. Essay by James Lingwood ISBN: 978-2869250512

Barney, Matthew. Cremaster 5. Portikus Frankfurt, Germany and Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York 1997. ISBN: 9781881616870

"Matthew Barney: The Cremaster Cycle": at the Guggenheim Museum, New York. Catalogue published by Harry N. Abrams; 544 pages;

Barney, Matthew. DRAWING RESTRAINT Volume 1 Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, Germany 2005 ISBN: 0979507707

Barney, Matthew. DRAWING RESTRAINT Volume 2 Uplink Co., Tokyo 2005 ISBN: 4900728144

Barney, Matthew. DRAWING RESTRAINT Volume 3 Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea 2005

Barney, Matthew. DRAWING RESTRAINT Volume 4 JMc & GHB Editions, New York 2007, Matthew Barney, Sammlung-Goetz, Munich 2007 ISBN: 0979507707

Barney, Matthew. DRAWING RESTRAINT Volume 5 Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, Germany 2007 ISBN: 3865603181

[edit] Notable works

[edit] References and notes

  1. ^ Jonathan Jones, The myth-maker, The Guardian, 16 October 2002.
  2. ^ http://www.guggenheim.org

[edit] External links

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