Subliming Vessel is the first museum exhibition devoted to Matthew Barney's works on paper. Featuring nearly one hundred drawings spanning the artist's career to date, the exhibition will include Barney's earliest drawings made in the late 1980s, drawings created in conjunction with the CREMASTER film cycle (1994–2002), and those related to his current project RIVER OF FUNDAMENT.
Also on view are a selection of Barney's storyboards for his films and videos—composed of sketches, photographs, clippings, and books—used to map out the narrative structure of his projects. For the exhibition, the artist has selected items from the Morgan's collections to display as part of his storyboards, underscoring the important role of literature and mythology in the elaboration of his stories.
Subliming Vessel also marks the creation of a new DRAWING RESTRAINT performance, the twentieth in this ongoing series that examines the relationship between self-imposed resistance and creativity. The drawings created during the performance are on view in the Morgan's Clare Eddy Thaw Gallery.
This exhibition is made possible by a lead grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. Major funding is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts with further generous support from the Charles E. Pierce, Jr., Fund for Exhibitions, Barbara Gladstone, Maja Oeri and Hans Bodenmann, and Nancy Schwartz.
Matthew Barney
KHU: Djed, 2011
Brush and ink, gold leaf, iron, and lapis lazuli on black paper in polyethylene frame
12 3/4 x 10 3/4 x 1 1/4 inches (32.4 x 27.3 x 3.2 cm)
Private collection
Copyright Matthew Barney
Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels