matthew barney at schaulager

matthew barney: prayer sheet with the wound and the nail schaulager, basel june 12th to october 3rd, 2010

curated by neville wakefield, ‘prayer sheet with the wound and the nail’ is an exhibition of the work of contemporary american artist matthew barney. the show features the archive of barney’s ‘drawing restraint’ series which began as early as 1987, while he was still a student at yale university.

‘form can only take shape when it struggles against resistance’ is the underlying principle of ‘drawing restraint’, in which barney attempts to make graphic marks despite self-imposed physical and psychological hindrances (literally ‘hindered drawing’ or ‘drawing under difficult circumstances’). the series of artistic actions were initially designed so that their structures made drawing difficult.

early ‘drawing restraint’ performances consisted of purpose-built apparatus with ramps, slants, elastic belts and other hurdles specifically intended to impair the artist’s technical skills. the performances were choreographed with precision, revolving around themes such as exertion, overcoming obstacles, rise and fall, and experimenting with the body and its limits. as the series has developed, the performance settings have become increasingly sophisticated and narratives more allegorical.

matthew barney, drawing restraint 17, 2010 production still © matthew barney photo: hugo glendinning courtesy of schaulager

the so-called ‘drawing restraint archive’ includes sculptures, vitrines, videos and drawings which arose from his ‘drawing restraint’ performances which number sixteen to date. at schaulager, barney’s work is placed in dialogue with artworks deploying christian iconography by such artists as albrecht dürer, hans baldung etc. the aim of this juxtaposition is not to draw parallels between religious and secular visual traditions, but rather seeks to render latent ideas in barney’s work visible. his working themes of exertion, overcoming obstacles, rise and fall, also evolved as traditions within the pictorial inventions of christian iconography. in addition, three monumental sculptures are displayed, and two new works exclusive to schaulager, ‘drawing restraint 17’ and ‘drawing restraint 18’ are shown for the first time, having been created in may 2010.

matthew barney, drawing restraint 17, 2010 production still © matthew barney photo: hugo glendinning courtesy of schaulager

‘drawing restraint 17’ conveys a sophisticated allegorical narrative. taking his starting point from the painting ‘death and the woman’ by hans baldung (called grien), which is also part of the exhibition, barney conceived the idea for a film in which the fundamental elements of the ‘drawing restraint’ series are transposed to the basel locality. for the first time, it is not barney himself, but a young woman who plays the role of the film’s protagonist, struggling against deliberately-placed hindrances.

‘drawing restraint 17’ is the first work that can be seen before entering the exhibition, presented on the institution’s large outdoor LED screens. it relates to the new sculpture – its ‘secondary form’ as barney puts it – on display on the gallery’s lower floor. the final shot of the film is a forensic close up of the young woman as she passes through a membrane into a wooden pentagonal frame and thus forms a new sculpture.

matthew barney, drawing restraint 17, 2010 production still © matthew barney photo: hugo glendinning courtesy of schaulager

‘drawing restraint 18’ is a performance which created an ‘altarpiece’ within the basilica-inspired floor plan of the exhibition space. the trampoline from ‘drawing restraint 6’ was used one more time and propped at a twenty-six degree angle with a pine wedge and placed next to the wall. vertical marks were made on the altar wall at the height of each leap from the angled trampoline. the length of the mark records the downward fall from the height of each attempt.

schaulager® münchenstein / basel ‘matthew barney: prayer sheet with the wound and the nail’ june 12th to october 3rd, 2010 view of an exhibition room courtesy of schaulager

schaulager® münchenstein / basel ‘matthew barney: prayer sheet with the wound and the nail’ june 12th to october 3rd, 2010 view of an exhibition room courtesy of schaulager

you may view a video of the ‘prayer sheet with the wound and the nail’ exhibition’s opening press conference here.

matthew barney, drawing restraint 15, 2007 documentary photograph © matthew barney photo: neville wakefield courtesy of schaulager

matthew barney, drawing restraint 15, 2007 documentary photograph © matthew barney photo: neville wakefield courtesy of schaulager

matthew barney, drawing restraint 15, 2007 documentary photograph © matthew barney photo: neville wakefield courtesy of schaulager

matthew barney, drawing restraint 15, 2007 documentary photograph © matthew barney photo: neville wakefield courtesy of schaulager

matthew barney, drawing restraint 15, 2007 documentary photograph © matthew barney photo: kanoa baysa courtesy of schaulager

matthew barney, drawing restraint 13, 2006 documentary photograph © matthew barney photo: chris winget courtesy of schaulager

matthew barney, drawing restraint 9: dynamic of internal relation, 2006 graphite, vaseline and iodine drawing on paper in self-lubricating plastic frame 13.5 x 11.5 x 1.5 inches emanuel hoffman foundation, on permanent loan to the öffentliche kunstsammlung basel © matthew barney photo: öffentliche kunstsammlung basel, martin p. bühler

matthew barney, drawing restraint 9: amphibious landing, 2006 graphite, vaseline and iodine drawing on paper in self-lubricating plastic frame 13.5 x 11.5 x 1.5 inches emanuel hoffman foundation, on permanent loan to the öffentliche kunstsammlung basel © matthew barney photo: öffentliche kunstsammlung basel, martin p. bühler

matthew barney, drawing restraint 10, 2005 documentary photograph © matthew barney photo: reggi shiobara courtesy of schaulager

matthew barney, drawing restraint 9, 2005 production still © matthew barney photo: chris winget courtesy of schaulager

matthew barney, drawing restraint 9, 2005 production still © matthew barney photo: chris winget courtesy of schaulager

matthew baraney, drawing restraint 7, 1993 production still © matthew barney photo: michael james o’brien courtesy of schaulager

matthew barney, envelopa: drawing restraint 7 (guillotine), 1993 (detail) color photo in nylon frame © matthew barney courtesy of schaulager

matthew barney, drawing restraint: 1, 1987 documentary photograph © matthew barney photo: michael rees courtesy of schaulager

hans holbein the younger (1497 / 1948 – 1543) christ recumbent below the cross, circa 1520 woodcut by hans lützelburger 6.8 x 10.9 inches kunstmseum basel, kupferstichkabinett, amerbach-kabinett photo: kunstmuseum basel, martin p. bühle courtesy of schaulager

‘(…) ‘prayer sheet with the wound and the nail’ follows the intersection of different eras and their approach to the sacred and profane body. the predicament of religious art – not to say of religion itself – has always been how to give form to an internal, moral or spiritual condition. where judaism has responded to this predicament with injunctions against the graven image, christian iconography has developed around a visual language for which the trails of the spirit are inscribed upon mortal flesh. best known are the narrative cycles of the passion, here represented by the woodcuts and engravings of albrecht dürer and martin schongauer. along with these are lesser-known works of the period by baldung-grien, cranach, graf, goltzius, wierix and others for whom allegorical and religious impulses of stand side by side with the drawn cut or engraved form. by placing works that represent this tradition alongside the ‘drawing restraint’ series, the intention is less to draw parallels between the secular and religious, sacred and profane, than it is to create a dialogue between the internal and external inscriptions of the flesh and our struggles to project these onto the world.‘ – neville wakefield, curator

more than 70 sacred artworks from the northern renaissance are exhibited in contrast to barney’s work.

hans baldung grien (1484 / 1485 – 1545) death with banner lowered to the ground, circa 1505 pen and brown ink, hightened with white, on pale brown paper 11.7 x 7.3 inches kunstmuseum basel, kupferstichkabinett donation from the heirs of dr. tobias christ, 1947 photo: kunstmuseum basel, martin p. bühler courtesy of schaulager

hans baldun grien (1484 / 85 – 1545) woman and death, 16th c. tempera on limewood 11 5/8 x 6 7/8 inches kunstmueum basel photo: kunstmuseum basel martin p. bühler courtesy of schaulager

lucas cranach the elder (1472 – 1553) head of christ crowned with thorns, circa 1520 / 1520 oil on limewood 10.8 x 8.1 inches private collection photo: brian watt, london courtesy of schaulager

matthew barney was born in 1967 in san francisco, california. he is best known for his ambitious film and performance cycles ‘cremaster’ and ‘drawing restraint’. since 1996, emanuel hoffmann foundation has been buying his work. in all their various manifestations, barney’s work is linked by the desire to lend inner states, a binding form.