Matthew Barney

Estimate

70,000 - 90,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

Matthew Barney
CREMASTER 2: Korihor
signed, dated 99 and with the artist's stamp on the reverse
gelatin silver print in acrylic frame
43 1/8 by 33 7/8 in.
109.5 by 86 cm.
This work is number 3 from an edition of 6 plus 1 artist's proof.

Provenance

Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York

Literature

Nancy Spector, ed., Matthew Barney: The Cremaster Cycle, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2002, no. 176, p. 463, illustrated (another example), p. 511

Catalogue Note

In this work, which is a still from the film Cremaster 2, the artist poses himself as Gary Gilmore, who was convicted of murder and executed in 1977. Barney recreates Gilmore’s character and uses his life and death as a focal point for Cremaster 2. Barney explains why Gilmore was a suitable character for his film: ‘Gilmore spent his entire life in prison so he doesn't have a developed life in the world. Conceptually he's more of a vessel than would be somebody who lives in the world.’ (interview with Jonathan Jones, Untitled, no. 21, Spring 2000). Barney portrays Gilmore as a drone to express his own ideas encompassing Cremaster 2. The blank gaze in this mug-shot of an image is the exact tool he uses to mold the life of Gary Gilmore into his own forceful and contemplative creation in Cremaster 2.