Matthew Barney — The Cremaster Cycle — Field Emblem Embroidered Patches — Complete Set of 5 — Guggenheim Museum 2003 Retrospective Edition
An exceptional and increasingly difficult to find complete set of five embroidered Field Emblem patches, produced as official limited merchandise for Matthew Barney's landmark The Cremaster Cycle retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, February 21 – June 11, 2003. The set comprises one patch for each of the five films in the cycle — Cremaster 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 — each rendered in the distinctive color scheme associated with its corresponding film, and each incorporating Barney's signature Field Emblem: the oval-with-horizontal-bar motif that has functioned as the artist's personal sigil since the early 1990s.
The Cremaster Cycle (1994–2002) is one of the most ambitious works of moving-image art produced in the late twentieth century — a five-film sculptural and narrative cycle weaving together myth, biology, athletics, architecture, geology, and personal iconography. Produced over eight years and exhibited in fragmented form across the duration of its making, the cycle was first presented in its entirety at the 2003 Guggenheim retrospective — an exhibition that integrated the museum's iconic Frank Lloyd Wright spiral architecture directly into Barney's installation, in dialogue with the Chrysler Building staging of Cremaster 3.
The Field Emblem — the central symbol embroidered on each patch — is Matthew Barney's signature visual identifier. The motif derives from the cremaster muscle (which controls testicular ascent and descent in mammals) and from athletic-field iconography, fusing biology, sport, and ritual into a single graphic form. The emblem appears throughout Barney's work as a recurring sign of transformation and the mediation of opposites — a kind of personal coat-of-arms running across two decades of practice.
✦ The Five Patches — One for Each Film ✦
Each patch is rendered in the signature color palette associated with the corresponding film in the cycle, allowing the complete set to function as a chromatic index of the Cremaster Cycle as a whole:
★ CREMASTER 1 (1995) — the Boise State football stadium, blue field
★ CREMASTER 2 (1999) — the Mormon West, Gary Gilmore, brown/earth tones
★ CREMASTER 3 (2002) — the Chrysler Building, Masonic ritual, black/silver
★ CREMASTER 4 (1994) — the Isle of Man, the Loughton Candidate, yellow/orange
★ CREMASTER 5 (1997) — Budapest opera, the Magician, magenta/purple
Together the five patches constitute a complete chromatic and narrative index of the cycle — the rarest configuration in which to acquire this museum-edition object.
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Condition Notes (Honestly Disclosed):
Mint condition. All five patches are unused and present in their original common packaging exactly as issued by the Guggenheim Museum in 2003. No fraying, no soiling, no loose threads, no fading. Colors are fully saturated and embroidery is crisp. The set has been carefully stored in a smoke-free, climate-controlled environment since acquisition. Please refer to all detailed photographs for exact condition verification. Sold as-is.
Why This Matters:
The 2003 Guggenheim retrospective was a watershed moment in contemporary art — the first complete presentation of the Cremaster Cycle as a unified body of work, and one of the most significant single-artist exhibitions of the early 2000s. Limited official merchandise produced for the exhibition — and particularly the Field Emblem patch set, which materially miniaturizes Barney's most personal symbol across all five films of the cycle — has become an increasingly sought-after collectible. Complete five-patch sets in original packaging and unused condition are notably rare; most surviving examples on the secondary market are either incomplete sets, single patches, or examples that have been removed from their original packaging and applied to garments.
For Collectors:
This complete mint set is well suited to serious collectors of Matthew Barney's work, Cremaster Cycle archivists, Guggenheim Museum exhibition memorabilia specialists, contemporary art institutions, and collectors building chronological documentation of major early-2000s American contemporary art exhibitions. The set is equally suited to careful framing for display as a self-contained chromatic index of the cycle, or to preservation in its original packaging as a complete museum-edition object.
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The complete patch set is carefully wrapped in acid-free archival material, sandwiched between rigid backing boards to maintain its original packaging integrity, then double-boxed in a rigid carton with corner protection. Particular care is taken to ensure the original packaging is preserved exactly as received. Ships from Tokyo, Japan with full tracking and insurance.
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