El Mago (de) Matthew Barney: Influencias Renacentistas en el Ciclo Cremaster

In this article we will try to offer a new interpretation of the video art work of the artist Matthew Barney (California, 1967) the Cremaster Cycle, approaching a more humanistic and less biological vision, the last one being the principal study aspect for the experts on Matthew Barney. We will focus on the character of the Magician, a key figure in the Cremaster Cycle. The Magician lighting the pass to a possible interpretation of the Cycle in Renaissance key, the magician character while being a personification of aesthetic- artistic interests of Matthew Barney is also an approximation to the ideal of the Renaissance man: philosopher, magician, healer. Alter-ego of Matthew Barney, the escape artist Harry Houdini represents (and through him all other magical branches) a possible link with the powerful magician Renaissance described by the philosopher Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), able to metamorphose, influence in the sensitivities of his objects, through self-knowledge and knowledge of the Divine.

El reencuentro del arte de la memoria de Giordano Bruno en el Ciclo Cremaster de Matthew Barney

El presente trabajo de investigación representa un intento crítico para abordar el concepto de continuidad en el pensamiento artístico basado en el estudio de caso de una obra artística única en su tipo, el Ciclo Cremaster de Matthew Barney. Es una producción artística notoria, que ha suscitado mucho debate y dividido las opiniones de los críticos y del público, sin llegar, sin embargo a concluir de manera definitiva el proceso artístico del autor. La hipótesis que manejamos es la de contemplar al Ciclo Cremaster como una especie de manifiesto contemporáneo de los sistemas desarrollados por el filósofo y libre pensador Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), cuyos tratados sobre el cosmos, la memoria, la imaginación, la magia y la imagen se condensan en una “maquina mágica de la memoria” que podría ser una significante precursora del trabajo de Barney.

Teken onder weerstand: Over de tekenpraktijk van Matthew Barney en Michelangelo

Net zoals een kunstenaar als Michelangelo Buonarroti (1476-1564) zich profileerde als beeldhouwer, schilder, architect en poëet, laveert Matthew Barney (1967) moeiteloos tussen verschillende hedendaagse kunstvormen.Het oeuvre van de Amerikaanse kunstenaar Matthew Barney bestaat uit performance, fotografie, tekeningen, designobjecten en film. Niet toevallig werd hij in 1989 door een kunstcriticus omgedoopt tot “De Michelangelo van de genitale kunst”. Dit had niet alleen te maken met de vele naakte atletische lichamen in zijn oeuvre. De verwantschap tussen Barney (1967) en Michelangelo (1476-1564) is groter dan men zou verwachten. Senne Schrayen trekt in dit artikel een parallel tussen de lopende performancereeks Drawing Restraint (gestart in 1987) van Barney en de presentatietekeningen van Michelangelo uit 1532 vanuit een transhistorische invalshoek en met aandacht voor het maakproces van de tekeningen. Just as Michelangelo Buonarroti (1476-1564) worked as a sculptor, painter, architect and poet, Matthew Barney (1967) switches smoothly between various contemporary art forms. The oeuvre of this US artist includes performance, photography, drawing, design and film. Not coincidentally an art critic, writing in 1989, dubbed him 'The Michelangelo of genital art' and this was not just because of the many athletic nudes that people his oeuvre. The parallels between Barney (1967) and Michelangelo (1476-1564) are greater than one might think. In the article Senne Schrayen makes a comparison between Barney's current series of performances (started in 1987) called Drawing Restraint and Michelangelo's drawings of 1532 from a transhistorical perspective and giving close attention to the process of making the drawing.

Review of After Art by David Joselit (Princeton)

David Joselit’s slim volume "After Art" offers multiple intriguing frameworks to analyze art in the present-day globalized art world. After Art backs away from the traditional approach of artist intent and production and looks at what happens to images once they are attached to the networks that circulate them. Instead of proselytizing individual or even original artworks, Joselit champions images that are constantly reproduced and remediated by artists and architects such as Tania Bruguera, Ai Weiwei, Sherrie Levine, Matthew Barney, Le Corbusier, and Rem Koolhaus.