Lot 429 | Cremaster 5 her giant

BARNEY, MATTHEW
1967 San Francisco

Title: Cremaster 5 her giant.
Date: 1997.
Technique: C-print laid down on acrylic plate.
Depiction Size: 127 x 101cm.
Number: 2/6.
Frame: Artist's frame (acrylic). Not examined out of the frame.


Provenance:
- Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York (label, here numbered)

Exhibitions:
- Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen/Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen 2001
- Museum der Moderne, Salzburg 2005
- Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal 2007
- Kunsthalle Krems, 2010
- me Collectors Room, Berlin 2014/2015

Literature:
- Schoppmann, Wolfgang: ohne zögern - Die Sammlung Olbricht Teil 2, Heidelberg 2001, p. 297, ill. p. 49
- Husslein-Arco, Agnes (ed.): Les grands spectacles - 120 Jahre Kunst und Massenkultur, Ostfildern-Ruit 2005, ill. p. 275
- Finckh, Gerhard (ed.): Das deutungsreiche Spiel - Der Symbolismus und die Kunst der Gegenwart, Wuppertal 2007, p. 239, ill. p. 197
- Schoppmann, Wolfgang/Wipplinger, Hans-Peter (eds.): Lebenslust & Totentanz - Olbricht Collection, Krems 2010, p. 124
- Stiftung Olbricht (ed.): EXOTIKA and 4 other cases of the self, Berlin 2014, ill. p. 42

The American media artist Matthew Barney combines sculpture, installation, performance and video art in his works. Through his sporting activities as quarterback on his high school's American football team, Yale University became aware of Barney and recruited him. Barney initially studied medicine with the goal of becoming a plastic surgeon, but had to abandon his plans due to poor performance. Visits to his mother, an abstrat painter, awakened his interest in art. Barney then participated in the advanced program at the School of Arts at Yale University. In 1989 he successfully completed his art degree. In the following years his works dealt with topics such as biology, mythology, sexuality, sports and medicine.

It is especially with his art films that Barney attracts international attention. Among his important video works is the five part Cremaster cycle. However, this is more than "just" a video work. If one turns one's attention to the stage set, one recognizes a carefully draped, often symmetrically arranged scenic structure that at least touches, if not exceeds, the border to installation. Many of the precisely arranged objects are more than mere props. Barney elevates the supposed props to autonomous sculptures with a statement of their own; some of the sculptures are even created during the shoot. In this way, Barney gives the sculptures a performative character and once again crosses genre boundaries, this time the boundary to performance. It's easy to see that Barney is a unique and extraordinary artist who is not afraid to leave well-trodden paths and take his own path, one that fits his concerns.

"Cremaster 5", from which the work presented here originates, is set in 19th century Budapest. In terms of content, it represents the conclusion of the Cremaster cycle, but was produced as a third film in 1997. The name of the cycle alludes to the cremaster muscle, a muscle in the testicles that brings them closer to the abdominal cavity. The Cremaster cycle is based on two core ideas: Firstly, sexual differentiation plays a decisive role in the prenatal stage. Thus "Cremaster 1" represents the stage of the greatest possible femininity and is therefore also the only film in which Barney himself does not play a role. In "Cremaster 5" the masculine component dominates and Barney plays several roles himself. On the other hand, the cycle can also be interpreted as a visualization of the creative process. According to this, the idea finds its origin in "Cremaster 1" and goes through various stages such as rejection, love and panic, before the idea is realized in "Cremaster 5".

Thus the cycle represents a self-contained aesthetic system. With a unique material language and a narrative structure that speaks for itself, Barney transports his ideas, which are interwoven in a complex way. Like "Cremaster 5 her giant", the video stills printed on acrylic provide insights into the visual design of the much-praised art film. Matthew Barney stages himself as a hybrid in a paradisiacal setting. Barney not only convinces with his fantasy and creative power, but also charges the picture with mythological references.