Matthew Barney, “Virgins,” cast and machined brass, and cast and machined copper (image courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels)
Film, metalwork, and America’s natural landscape all collide in Redoubt, the latest exhibition by Matthew Barney. Whether or not the controversial artist’s work has been successful seems a matter of perspective (Kanye West once compared him to “Jesus”). Nonetheless, Barney has persisted, and you can’t deny that his latest exhibition is an ambitious undertaking by an artist aware that his output has been divisive. The Redoubt exhibition, which will remain on view at the Yale University Art Gallery until June 16, encompasses a two-hour film set in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains, huge detailed brass and copper sculptures of logs, and 40 engraved and electroplated copper plates.
Those in New York who want to engage with the artist in person have the freedom to do so at the Morgan Library & Museum this week in a talk on Thursday, May 23, at 6:30 pm. Barney will discuss the labor that went into Redoubt with Molly Nesbit of Vassar College, in a talk guided by Pamela Franks, the exhibition’s curator. Tickets to the event are $15, but students with valid ID can get in for $10.
When: Thursday, May 23, 6:30pm
Where: The Morgan Library & Museum (225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, Midtown, Manhattan)
Matthew Barney: Redoubt is curated by Pamela Franks at the Yale University Art Gallery.
