Renowned American artist Matthew Barney, celebrated across the global contemporary art world for his creation of monumental, highly complex, and visually extravagant film projects such as The Cremaster Cycle and River of Fundament, very nearly added another colossal undertaking to his resume. According to a freshly published profile in New York Magazine, the artist was presented with the rare and daunting opportunity to direct a staging of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s famously avant-garde, multi-part opera cycle, Licht. However, after careful consideration, Barney ultimately declined the offer, largely driven by concerns over the immense time commitment required to bring such a gargantuan theatrical and musical work to life.
The project that Barney turned down is none other than Licht (“Light”), an eccentric, monumental seven-part opera cycle composed by the pioneering German electronic and avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Written over a span of more than two decades, between 1977 and 2003, the seven operas that make up the cycle correspond to the seven days of the week. Stockhausen’s vision for the work is notoriously surreal, demanding, and logistically nightmarish, calling in various parts for actual, flying helicopters equipped with string quartet players, as well as what the New York Times once memorably described as an “intergalactic camel.”
The sheer audacity of the score means it is rarely performed in its entirety. Yet, interest in Stockhausen’s magnum opus has seen a notable resurgence recently. The complete cycle was staged in its entirety for only the second time in history at the Deutsche Oper Berlin earlier this year, while localized portions of the epic composition were presented to audiences in the United States at New York’s expansive Park Avenue Armory in 2024.
At first glance, Licht might appear to be a seamless, almost natural fit for an artist of Barney’s caliber. His own artistic oeuvre is thoroughly defined by extravagance, unrelenting ambition, and a monumental physical and conceptual scale that routinely challenges the traditional boundaries between cinema, sculpture, performance art, and installation. Nevertheless, when speaking with Zachary Woolfe of New York Magazine, Barney explained that the logistical realities and temporal demands of the German composer’s work simply did not align with his current life and career. Pointing to the sheer magnitude of the undertaking, Barney captured his hesitation bluntly, stating, “I don’t think I can quit my job for two years.”
Beyond passing on the Stockhausen opera cycle, Barney signaled during the interview that he might be finished making projects of such staggering physical and temporal proportions as The Cremaster Cycle altogether. That landmark project, which cemented his international reputation during the late 1990s and early 2000s, remains widely debated by critics, art historians, and film scholars, and it is famously viewed in its entirety only on rare occasions. Consisting of five feature-length films, The Cremaster Cycle is loosely centered around the biological and metaphorical development of sexual organs in the embryo, weaving dense webs of esoteric mythology, athletic performance, and high-end architectural landmarks.
Among them is the three-hour-long Cremaster 3, released in 2002. This widely celebrated film involves iconic New York City locations like the Chrysler Building and the Guggenheim Museum, features a cameo appearance by legendary minimalist sculptor Richard Serra, incorporates mysterious and punishing Masonic-like rituals, and culminates in a memorable, high-octane demolition derby scene involving vintage cars and customized bikes. The cultural and artistic impact of the work was further underscored when Cremaster 3 earned a prominent spot on ARTnews’s prestigious list of the best artworks of the 21st century so far.
Yet, despite the critical acclaim and cultural footprint left by these monumental cinematic undertakings, Barney appears ready to turn the page on that chapter of his career. No longer, it seems, will he take on artistic endeavors quite like that sprawling five-part cycle. Reflecting on the intense psychological and physical toll of long-term artistic immersion, Barney opened
up to New York Magazine about how his relationship with scale and duration has evolved over the decades.
“Being trapped inside something for many years, I think that really used to be a driving force,” Barney told the magazine. Elaborating on the foundational mindset that fueled his earlier career, he recalled, “I remember deciding before Cremaster started that I wanted to make something that took a long time and would take place over many locations and that structurally was much bigger than any exhibition. But being inside something for that long is intense.”
The intensity of that creative confinement is perhaps best embodied by one of Barney’s most grandly envisioned and polarizing projects, the nearly-six-hour-long 2014 film River of Fundament. Based loosely on Norman Mailer’s dense, transgressive late-career novel Ancient Evenings, the film has experienced a renewed moment in the spotlight, making a rare and anticipated return to New York City for a special screening staged at the Masonic Hall of New York. The screening also serves as a catalyst for ongoing critical dialogue, with Andy Battaglia, the executive editor of ARTnews and Art in America, scheduled to lead a related public discussion with Barney and the film’s longtime composer, Jonathan Bepler.
When River of Fundament first debuted a decade ago, it sharply divided critics and audiences alike. Much of the controversy and critical debate stemmed from Barney’s unvarnished stylistic choices, particularly the film’s willingness to foreground abject, bodily activities such as vomiting and defecation alongside its grand operatic and mythic themes.
As New York Magazine points out, the polarizing reception of River of Fundament led to a notable shift in the broader art world’s perception of Barney. During the 1990s and 2000s, he was widely regarded by curators, critics, and collectors as one of the definitive and most influential American artists of his generation. However, the sprawling and difficult nature of his later film projects caused some momentum to stall.
More recently, however, Barney appeared to successfully regain critical and creative momentum with Secondary, a video installation released in 2023. Centered unflinchingly around the physical realities of football and the broader culture of American violence and bodily trauma, Secondary marked a distinct departure from his previous cinematic output. By comparison to the monumental, multi-year, multi-location extravaganzas of his past, Secondary is remarkably modest in scale, lasting only a single hour.
This pivot toward more focused, contained artistic expressions suggests that while Barney’s appetite for exploring dark, complex, and physically demanding themes remains entirely intact, his desire to spend years trapped inside the labyrinth of a gargantuan production has finally run its course.
