Matthew Barney was born
in San Francisco in 1967; at age six, he moved to Idaho with his
family. After his parents divorced, Barney continued to live with
his father in Idaho, playing football on his high school team, and
visiting his mother in New York City, where he was introduced to
art and museums. This intermingling of sports and art informs his
work as a sculptor and filmmaker. After graduating from Yale in
1991, Barney entered the art world to almost instant controversy
and success. He is best known as the producer and creator of the
“CREMASTER” films, a series of five visually extravagant works created
out of sequence (“CREMASTER 4” began the cycle, followed
by “CREMASTER 1,” etc.). The films generally feature Barney
in myriad roles, including characters as diverse as a satyr, a magician,
a ram, Harry Houdini, and even the infamous murderer Gary Gilmore.
The title of the films refers to the muscle that raises and lowers
the male reproductive system according to temperature, external
stimulation, or fear. The films themselves are a grand mixture of
history, autobiography, and
mythology,
an intensely private universe in which
symbols and images are densely
layered and interconnected. The resulting cosmology is both beautiful
and complex. His final film in the series, “CREMASTER 3,” begins beneath New York City’s Chrysler Building and includes
scenes at the Saratoga race track, where apparently dead costumed
horses race through a dream sequence, and at the Guggenheim Museum,
where artist Richard Serra throws hot Vaseline down the Museum’s
famous spiral ramp. The film is scheduled for release in 2002. Matthew
Barney won the prestigious Europa 2000 prize at the 45th Venice
Biennale in 1996. He was also the first recipient of the Guggenheim
Museum’s Hugo Boss Award.
For additional biographic & bibliographic information:
Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York | Regen Projects, Los Angeles
Matthew Barney on the Art21 blog |
