MATTHEW BARNEY (b. 1967) ENVELOPA: DRAWING RE

A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY

Provenance
Barbara Gladstone Gallery, NEW YORK

Exhibited
KORTIJK, Kunsto(f)f, ANNO '02, 2002 (another example exhibited illustrated)

IN ENVELOPA: DRAWING RESTRAINT 7 (MANUAL) C, MATTHEW BARNEY ONCE AGAIN EXPLICITLY INVOKES ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY. THE TWO SATYRS ARE THE EMBODIMENT OF ONE OF BARNEY'S CONTINUAL UNDERLYING THEMES OF GENDER METAMORPHOSES AND CONFLICT. THESE CREATURES REMAIN ODDLY INDETERMINATE, THEIR GENITALS HAVING BEEN REDUCED TO ANDROGYNOUS LUMPS DESPITE THE OBVIOUS MALENESS OF THEIR HEADS AND TORSOS. EVERY GESTURE THEY MAKE EXUDES ENTRAPMENT, FRUSTRATION, OR EROTIC ANTICIPATION, THE CENTER PANEL CAPTURING THIS SENTIMENT MOST CLEARLY. VIEWING THESE FANTASTIC BUT COMPELLING RIGOUROUS GOINGS-ON IS LIKE WATCHING THE ARDUOUS ROUTINES OF EARLIER PERFORMANCE ARTISTS SUCH AS BRUCE NAUMAN, CHRIS BURDEN, VITO ACCONCI, OR CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN BEING REHEARSED BY NEOCLASSICAL CHARACTERS OUT OF A JEAN COCTEAU FILM. IT IS A FETISHISTIC RITUAL MASQUERADE—THAT IS, ON BODILY FIXATION, DISGUISE AND DISPLAY—WHILE RATCHETING UP THE TENSION BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL MUTABILITY AND BIOLOGICAL RESISTANCE TO IT, BARNEY HAS PUSHED DISCUSSION ABOUT THE BALANCE OF POWER BETWEEN NATURE AND CULTURE, AUTHENTICITY AND ARTIFICE, TO ITS MOST THEATRICAL POINT YET.
R. Storr, ON THE EDGE: CONTEMPORARY ART FROM THE WERNER AND ELAINE DANNHEISER COLLECTION, NEW YORK,1997/1998, p. 24l