Matthew Barney or the Gesamtkunstwerk of the 21st century

Résumé du document

When talking or writing about the American artist Matthew Barney, critics and historians of art always start with the traditional biographic descriptions which in the case of Barney are quite pleasant and are justified by the fact that the artist himself uses autobiographic references in his own oeuvre and has created what it is called since 1969 with the Harald Szeemann's exhibition When attitudes become form, a personal mythology. This is why I will not go through his life but will focus on the notion recently attributed to Matthew Barney of Gesamtkunstwerk and his recent works. Obviously, the most difficult problem to overcome will be the lack of hindsight for an analysis of a contemporary artist. The first European stop for Matthew Barney's last exhibition, Drawing Restraint, was the Serpentine Gallery in London from September 20 to November 11 2007.

Extraits

[...] 28-35. D. Cameron, Périls et Colères, Bordeaux, Musée d'art contemporain M. Gioni, Matthew Barney, Milan, Electa A. Jones, Presence in Abstentia: Experiencing Performance as Documentation in Art Journal, vol Hiver 1997, p.11-18. A. Mahon, Eroticism and Art, New York, Oxford University Press p. 279-281. [...]

[...] And the construction of the sculpture, through the deconstruction of the matter almost becomes the real thread of the film. The conception of art in its totality passes also through the art of performance in itself and more specifically through Matthew Barney's conception of his body as a totality and as a cycle, notion embodies by the Path concept which starts with the mouth then goes via the digestive system to end up by the anal passage. The interest of Barney is to deconstruct this system to use the potential of energy. [...]

[...] Zapperi, Matthew Barney : système de production in Pratiques : réflexions sur l'art Hiver 2006, Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, p. 53-68. N. Spector, Matthew Barney in Matthew Barney, Safety Curtain, 2000/2001, Vienna Museum of Progress Interview with Richard Flood, Walker Art Center Minneapolis, May R. Krauss, L'originalité de l'avant-garde et autres mythes modernistes, Macula, Paris A. Jones, Presence in abstentia : experiencing performance as documentation in Art Journal Hiver 1997, p. 11-18. K. [...]

[...] Scott, Matthew Barney Live in Drawing Restraint Vol. Köln, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König S. Sontag, Temps Forts, Paris, Bourgois Drawing Restraint Drawing Restraint Drawing from Drawing Restraint Drawing Restraint Enveloppa Safety Curtain, Vienna Opera Good Year, Cremaster Richard Serra, Cremaster Transexualis (decline) Ambergris Matthew Barney performing Guardian of the Veil Guardian of the Veil, Norman Mailer Guardian of the Veil, Trans Am, 2007. [...]

[...] How justified the links between Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk and Matthew Barney's conception of art can be, Wagner's political ideas have to be taken into account when making such a comparison with an artist placed in our present political and historical context. And although Matthew Barney is using American mass culture as references and is deeply rooted in the American culture, he has proved through his career by working in Japan, Brazil and Europe and his large range of influences that his deep ideas were far from “Wagner's disgusting political ideas”[6]. Bibliography H. Brod, “Masculinity as Masquerade”, in The Masculine Masquerade, Cambridge, MIT Press N. Bryson, “Matthew Barney's Gonadotropic Cavalcade”, in Parkett p. [...]