Matthew Barney: The Cremaster Cycle and Select Early Works

Of The Cremaster Cycle, Matthew Barney’s nine-year cinematic undertaking that would help cement his place as one of the premier art world figures to emerge in the 1990s, the artist would state that he “was trying to take on a cinematic language that I had not dealt with before… to see how this sculptural project could align itself with the cinematic form.” Named for the muscle responsible for raising and lowering the testicles in response to temperature, each of the Cremaster films is an allegory-rich, visually stunning, and sprawling investigation into questions involving sexual development and the act of creation, a towering achievement that we’re screening on the occasion of the appearance of Barney’s new studio installation, Secondary, with the artist himself joining us in the theater with writer Maggie Nelson.

“The Cremaster Cycle had its debut in New York and has not been screened in the city since 2015. I’m delighted to bring it to Metrograph this spring in tandem with the premiere of my new film work Secondary—on public view in my Long Island City studio concurrently, from May 12 – June 25, 2023.”–Matthew Barney

Remaining films in The Cremaster Cycle will play on select dates through the first week of June. Showtimes and ticket links for the rest of the series will be available for purchase one week in advance of their first screenings.

Cremaster 4 + Cremaster 1
May 17, 7pm
May 21, 5:15pm

Cremaster 5
May 23, 7:30pm
May 25, 7:15pm

Cremaster 2
May 30, 7:30pm
June 1, 7pm
June 2, 4:30pm

Cremaster 3
Monday, June 5, 6pm
Wednesday, June 7, 6:15pm

Matthew Barney & Maggie Nelson In Conversation
June 4, 2:15pm