
Matthew Barney: Prayer Sheet with the Wound and Nail
Schaulager
June 12–October 3, 2010
Curated by Neville Wakefield
Holbein, Dürer, Cranach, Schongauer, Baldung Grien . . . Matthew Barney: an unorthodox lineup, to be sure, but not necessarily an unnatural one (think perfervid narratives of suffering flesh and transubstantiation). Occasioned by the Laurenz Foundation’s acquisition of a number of works from Barney’s series “Drawing Restraint,” 1987–, this show marshals religious paintings, woodcuts, and engravings by the unimpeachable greats of the Northern Renaissance, bringing into “dialogue” iconography from the fourteen Stations of the Cross and elements of the (thus far) sixteen parts of “DR.” What will Cranach’s Head of Christ with Crown of Thorns, ca. 1509, have to say to Barney’s Occidental Guest? (And in Herzog & de Meuron’s capacious temple to the contemporary, no less.) The ensuing apotheosis might just give Barney a Jesus complex.