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all the present must be transformed:
Matthew Barney and Joseph Beuys
October 28, 2006 until January 12, 2007
All in the present must be transformed: Matthew Barney and Joseph Beuys examines affinities between the two artists, who, though separated by generation and geography, share certain key aesthetic and conceptual concerns. Drawn primarily from the Guggenheim Museum’s in-depth holdings of works by Barney and Beuys, the exhibition examines the metaphoric use of materials, the focus on metamorphosis, and the relationship between action and its documentation in their respective practices. It also reveals fundamental, philosophical differences between Barney and Beuys—-fueled by the divide between modern and postmodernist thought--that, in turn, further enhances our understanding of each artist’s work.
Drawing
The exhibition will feature a broad selection of works on paper by each artist, which will demonstrate a shared graphic sensibility and the centrality of drawing to each of their oeuvres. Sketches of sculptural processes, organic systems, and metamorphic passages by both Barney and Beuys are composed with a similar delicate, almost tentative line. Whether emanating from existing work, preceding it in a catalytic manner, or being realized as part of a performance, drawing reveals the conceptual underpinnings of their practices. Iconographically, the drawings chart each artist’s absorption in transformative processes and personal cosmologies. Beuys used the cruciform shape as a graphic symbol for his conviction that art could function as a therapeutic force in the world. As a logo, it presages Barney’s use of the “field emblem” as an identifying marker in his work. An ellipsis bisected horizontally by a single bar, the symbol represents a body disciplined by restraint, a flow of raw energy held in check, an arena of pure potential.
Sculpture
Beuys’s Terremoto (1981) will be shown in tandem with Barney’s multipart sculpture Chrysler Imperial (2002). The point of comparison between these two works lies primarily in how each sculpture distills a complex narrative into discernable form, creating a microcosm of each artist’s aesthetic and conceptual system. On a more formal level, comparisons may also be made with regard to each artist’s use of eccentric materials as vehicles for content. Beuys’s fat and felt--ciphers for processes of transformation involving energy and insulation--translate into Barney’s Vaseline, a lubricating substance, which, in his symbolic language, represents transitions from one state to another.
Assembled during a performance in Rome as a benefit for the Italian newspaper Lotta Continua, Beuys’s Terremoto (1981) conflates key narrative threads. The type-setting machine refers to the power of newsprint to diffuse ideas on a massive scale. The manifestos affixed to the press relate to theories of social activism, environmental sustainability, and freedom of expression. Beuys spread fat, his signature material, on the keyboard, metaphorically ascribing the tools for communication with a source of energy to insure the transmission of ideas. He wrapped an Italian flag in felt in a gesture informed by his association of the material with insulation and healing. The blackboards, covered with drawings of human heads, their mouths open in silent screams, allude to the victims of the earthquake that struck Naples in 1980, to which the title of the work refers.
Barney’s Chrysler Imperial (2002) encapsulates sequences from the final film of his five-part CREMASTER cycle (1994-2003), which summarizes his essential themes. Each of the five main components, abstracted from cars competing in a demolition derby set in the lobby of the Chrysler Building, ca. 1930, bears the insignia of a specific CREMASTER episode and embodies the conflicts explored in the film cycle. As an abridged version of the cycle, Chrysler Imperial exemplifies how Barney distills cinematic narrative into sculptural dimensions—using his signature Vaseline and cast plastics—to extrapolate in space what he explores in time.
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The pairing of Beuys’s Eurasienstab (Eurasian Staff, 1967-68) with Barney’s Field Dressing (1989-90) explores the relationship between live performance, its documentation, and the sculptural relics it produces in both bodies of work
Beuys’s sculpture Eurasienstab (Eurasian Staff) derives from a series of actions around the theme of “Eurasia,” including a 1968 performance in Antwerp, documented in the video on view in the exhibition. Beuys’s concept of Eurasia evoked both the ancient cultural distinctions between East and West and the divided state of his native Germany, a wound embodied by the Berlin Wall. His hope for reconciliation is incarnated in the form of the Eurasian Staff (1967), a conductor of energy linking Eastern transcendentalism with Western rationalism. Barney’s formative installation, Field Dressing fuses performance, video, and sculpture in an equation that has informed all of his subsequent work. The video monitors reveal actions that Barney performed by interacting with the sculptural elements on view, invoking the hubristic yearnings of extreme athletics, the attempt to create form through resistance, and the idea of potentiality unleashed through discipline.
Vitrines
Beuys’s glass vitrines evoke the display mechanisms of both the fine art and natural history museum. The dual reference forwards his argument that art cannot be understood separately from either the social or organic worlds. The vitrine from 1983 includes Fat Filter (1964) and Sledge (1969), a multiple that invokes the theme of survival at the core of Beuys’s personal mythology. Another vitrine from 1984 features artifacts from a 1974 action in Pescara titled Incontro con Beuys, which refer to his concepts of insulation and energy production: a copper plate wrapped in felt and Italian sausages that Beuys sliced during the performance. For Barney, the vitrine offered a solution for the presentation of his editioned CREMASTER films as sculpture. CREMASTER 2 (1999), which deployed the story of Mormon murderer Gary Gilmore as a narrative armature for Barney’s exegesis on the conflict between fate and will, engendered a vitrine lined with honeycomb—a reference to Utah’s state emblem of the beehive. CREMASTER 3 (2002), which utilizes the partition of Ireland as a structural element, generated a vitrine constructed from green and orange plastic, the colors of the Irish flag.
The exhibition is being organized by Nancy Spector, Curator of Contemporary Art and Director of Curatorial Affairs. It will be accompanied by fully-illustrated catalogue in German or English, with texts by Spector, Christian Scheidemann, Mark Taylor, and Nat Trotman at a price of 39,80 euros.
As Edition No. 37 of the Deutsche Guggenheim, Matthew Barney created a set of postcards titled From Mud, a Blade in response to Joseph Beuys’ edition Filzpostkarte from 1985. Both editions of 100 are divided into 30 signed (400 resp. 500 euros) and 70 unsigned (59 resp. 10 euros) versions.
An extensive supporting program of lectures and children’s programs will augment the exhibition. In addition, a special film program featuring work by the two artists takes place from October 25, 2007 to January 14, 2007 in cooperation with the cinema babylon berlin:mitte.
Guided tours are offered free of charge each day at 6 p.m. The familiar Lunch Lectures on Wednesdays at 1 p.m., as well as the Keynote Tours each Sunday at 11:30 a.m., round out the offerings of the supporting program. We would like to direct your attention to the detailed information in the attached documents.
>> Download this Pressrelease (PDF)
Images of the exhibition
are available online at www.photo-files.de/guggenheim in a 300 dpi quality.
Further information at
Deutsche Guggenheim
Contact: Sara Bernshausen
Phone: +49-30-202093-14
Fax: +49-30-202093-20
email: berlin.guggenheim@db.com
Internet: www.deutsche-guggenheim.de
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