Matthew Barney

Celebrated for works blending performance, video, and sculpture, Matthew Barney has created complex narratives that emerge across series since his earliest exhibitions. Matthew Barney: OTTO Trilogy is the first book to trace the progression of three significant early projects—Facility of INCLINE, Facility of DECLINE, and OTTOshaft— and to reveal the narrative system that links them. Titled after former football player Jim Otto, the series explores the training, discipline, and physical limits of the body alongside questions of sexual difference and desire. Featuring an illuminating introduction by Nancy Spector; an essay by Maggie Nelson on the works’ exploration of psychology, bodies, image-making, narrative, and abstraction; and a new text by the artist, this generously illustrated volume includes previously unpublished artist’s sketches, behind-the-scenes photographs, research material, and video stills. It is the definitive publication on this important series, and offers a key to understanding many of the themes that thread throughout Barney’s oeuvre.… (mais)

Filled with hundreds of Matthew Barney's fantastical images, this comprehensive volume, which accompanies a major exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, surveys the popular artist's CREMASTER cycle—an epic five-part film project that uses the biological model of sexual difference as its conceptual departure point.
Three essays by Barney experts articulate the series' diverse themes and explore the artist's innovative aesthetic vocabulary; interviews with key collaborators— composer, costume designer, make-up artist, technicians, and actors—reveal his working process. In addition to stills from the five films—including the final episode, CREMASTER 3, which will premiere at the exhibition—the book features related sculptures, photographs, drawings, and storyboards. For anyone intrigued by this Wagner of contemporary art, this is an atlas to his enticingly hypnotic worlds.… (mais)

A generously illustrated look at the intricate narrative threads of three of the artist’s earliest works, and their continued resonance today

Celebrated for works blending performance, video, and sculpture, Matthew Barney has created complex narratives that emerge across series since his earliest exhibitions. Matthew Barney: OTTO Trilogy is the first book to trace the progression of three significant early projects—Facility of INCLINE, Facility of DECLINE, and OTTOshaft— and to reveal the narrative system that links them. Titled after former football player Jim Otto, the series explores the training, discipline, and physical limits of the body alongside questions of sexual difference and desire. Featuring an illuminating introduction by Nancy Spector; an essay by Maggie Nelson on the works’ exploration of psychology, bodies, image-making, narrative, and abstraction; and a new text by the artist, this generously illustrated volume includes previously unpublished artist’s sketches, behind-the-scenes photographs, research material, and video stills. It is the definitive publication on this important series, and offers a key to understanding many of the themes that thread throughout Barney’s oeuvre.… (mais)