#MATTHEW BARNEY 2020 SERIES#

In an extension of his interest in 'situation', Barney has explored the extremes of rebirth and regeneration in a way that tested even the liberal tastes of the contemporary art world.

Though gender determination is a dominant theme in contemporary art, Barney's work has allowed his viewer to search beyond the fixed parameters of liberal politics and to allow for a mediation on the relationship between sexual desire, self-discipline, and artistic productivity. Through his art, he has related this to his desire to obliterate the cultural tensions between the male and female sexes.

Barney has spoken of the concept of 'situation' - a raw, non-gendered, sexual energy 'without discipline or direction'.

Applying the principle that to achieve its maximum capacity the muscle must first be stretched to near breaking point, Barney tied himself down to a fixed point in a hybridized space (such as a gymnasium) before climbing and reaching over or around physical obstructions and props to draw and write on surfaces such as walls and ceilings.

#MATTHEW BARNEY 2020 SERIES#

Adopting the metaphor 'athlete as artist', his series brought a unique biological perspective to the crowded ideological sphere of gender and body politics in contemporary art. Barney's Drawing Restraints series drew on his early years as an athlete.Variety backed up the Cycle's postmodern credentials when it summed up Cremaster 3 as ' Hieronymus Bosch by way of Busby Berkeley'. Eliot's poem The Wasteland with the Star Wars cycle. Combining sculpture, drawing and installation the films create an expansive self-contained world that art critic Johnathan Jones suggests blend elements of T.S. Presented on a sweeping, operatic-like scale, and produced over a period of some eight years, many cite the Cremaster Cycle as one of the greatest achievements in American art. By unanimous consensus, Barney's most important work is his five-film, seven-hour, Cremaster Cycle.Barney is a strong advocate of collaboration (which he attributes to his early success in team sports), but the fact that he avoids self-publicity and unnecessary media attention (unlike Damien Hirst to whom he is sometimes compared) has added to his substantial cult following. Barney's work, which provokes psychological fantasies that many (indeed, most) find deeply challenging, is dense with references to training camps and medical apparatus, allusions to anatomical movement, the history of art, and the iconography, history, and mythology of ancient cultures. His works, which blend Video Art, Performance Art, and sculptural installations, are concerned with physical movement (sport and choreographed dance) and they carry deep thematic undercurrents of sexual and bodily excess. Courtesy of Matthew Barney, Gladstone Gallery.One of the most important figures in the contemporary art world, and known primarily for large-scale film projects, including his career-defining Cremaster Cycle, Barney has proved one of the most daring and ambitious (and divisive) American artists to gain fame from the late-twentieth century onward. Courtesy of Matthew Barney, Gladstone Gallery. The exhibition was realized by MOCA in collaboration with Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel. “Matthew Barney: RIVER OF FUNDAMENT” is organized by Haus der Kunst, Munich in collaboration with the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Tasmania and curated by Okwui Enwezor. “ Matthew Barney: RIVER OF FUNDAMENT” is largely inspired by Norman Mailer‘s epic novel “Ancient Evenings” from 1983, and draws its fantastical imagery from a wide range of sources including: Mailer’s life and work, ancient Egyptian mythology, and the rise and fall of the American auto industry. MOCA’s presentation of the exhibition will include new works made since the film’s premiere, which exemplify Barney’s continued exploration of its themes. The eponymous exhibition at MOCA (Los Angeles) brings together 14 large-scale sculptures weighing up to 25 tons, drawings, photographs, and vitrines that were inspired by or made in conjunction with the film. Nearly 7 years in the making, “ Matthew Barney: RIVER OF FUNDAMENT” is Barney’s largest filmic undertaking since his renowned five-part epic The CREMASTER Cycle (1994 to 2002).

Matthew barney 2020