Matthew Barney "Subliming Vessel" at the Morgan Library

The New York Times has a nice article (with some photos) about Matthew Barney's Subliming Vessel drawing retrospective, on view at the Morgan Library in New York City through September 2. In addition to drawings and stroyboards for Barney's films, the exhibition includes a site-specific drawing by Barney, Drawing Restraint 20. "A few days before the opening, the artist, alone in a gallery, executed a wall drawing while hefting an Olympic-grade weight bar and using it as a graphic tool. The drawing remains, as do related props: the weight bar, a towel and containers of graphite powder, chalk and petroleum jelly."

The Morgan Library has posted a list of events being held in conjunction with the exhibition. A talk, originally scheduled for this evening (May 15), between Matthew Barney and Christian Scheidemann, has been rescheduled for Wednesday, May 29, at 7 pm. On May 21, Matthew Barney will speak with Paul Holdengräber at the main branch of the New York Public Library at 7 pm. Other events at the Morgan include screenings of the documentaries No Restraint on June 7 and The Cremaster Cycle: A Conversation with Matthew Barney on June 21 and gallery talks on June 1 and June 14.

Cremaster Fanatic at MASS MoCA

Cremaster Fanatic is excited to be included in the upcoming exhibition Love to Love You, an exploration of fandom in art, at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA. From the press release: "Is it possible to tell the history of popular culture, not through celebrities, sports teams, or television shows, but through their fans? The exhibition Love to Love You brings together artists who explore fandom as a unique opportunity for shared social experience and extreme personal obsession... Using a variety of artistic approaches, the artists in this exhibition explore the lived experience of fandom as both a personal and social force... Participating artists include Mark Bennett, Eric Doeringer, Elissa Goldstone, Jason Lazarus, Eva LeWitt, Patrick McDonough, and Jeremy Shaw" The exhibition opens on May 25 and runs through December, 2013

Matthew Barney Live at the New York Public Library

In conjunction with his upcoming drawing retrospective at the Morgan Library, Matthew Barney will be speaking at the New York Public Library on May 21, as part of the LIVE from the NYPL series (note: the lecture will be held at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building - aka the "main" library on 5th Ave & 42nd St. - not at the Morgan). Barney will be speaking with the New York Public Library's Paul Holdengräber. You can find more information and purchase tickets HERE. The talk will evenutally be archived on the library's web site.

Matthew Barney Drawing Retrospective and Film Premier

New York City's Morgan Library will hold a retrospective exhibition of Matthew Barney's drawings from May 10 - September 2. Titled Subliming Vessel: The Drawings of Matthew Barney, it will be the first museum exhibition dedicated to Barney's drawings, featuring approximately 100 works from his undergraduate years in the 1980's to more recent drawings inspired by Norman Mailer's novel Ancient Evenings. The exhibition will include storyboards for Barney's films and videos, sketches, magazine clippings, and postcards, plus related rare books, medieval manuscripts, and drawings from the Morgan collection selected by Matthew Barney including a 2,000-year-old Egyptian Book of the Dead, a medieval zodiac and a copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. After it's run at the Morgan, the exhibition will travel to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, where it is scheduled to open in October (with supplemental materials drawn from the Bibliothèque's collection replacing those from the Morgan's). On July 13 and 14, Barney and one of his frequent collaborators, the composer Jonathan Bepler, will discuss their work and premier selections from a new film called River of Fundament at the Manchester International Festival in the UK (Barney presented the performance The Guardian of the Veil at the festival in 2007). River of Fundament is a projected seven part film project that draws upon the thematic undercurrents of Mailer’s Ancient Evenings, combining the traditions of narrative cinema with elements of live performance, sculpture and opera. Each film will correspond to one of the seven stages of the soul’s journey from death to rebirth in accordance with Egyptian mythology. Barney plans to present River of Fundament at opera houses and theatres internationally beginning in 2014.

Happy Valentine's Day!

via Art Nerd