Matthew Barney (b. 1967)

As the curtain rises in Cremaster 5, the final descension occurs. The last stop on the Cremaster Cycle's trans-Atlantic arc, the scenes that unfold in Budapest are harbingers of the end. Magic and theater frame this climax of love, realization and expurgation.
These four works encapsulate the captured drama of this cycle. The mood is that of high opera and the music and mythos are clearly palpable. "Watching Mr. Barney's imagery evolve of two axes--the axis of its conception and the axis of its creation--quickens the mind even as it overloads the senses" The present work perfectly captures the thematic and dogmatic struggles the artist wished to convey while also at the unique moment met at the end of the full cycle.