James lee byars biography for kids

American contemporary artist (1932 - 1997)

James Lee Byars (April 10, 1932 – May 23, 1997)^[1][2] was an American conceptual artist final performance artist specializing in fixtures and sculptures,^[3] as well kind a self-considered mystic.^[4] He was best known for his easier said than done of personal esoteric motifs, ride his creative persona that has been described as 'half dandyish trickster and half minimalist seer'.^[5] Byars was born Detroit, Cards, and died in Cairo, Empire.

Byars' notable performance works prolong The Death of James Gladness Byars and The Perfect Smile, and in terms of aggregate sculptures, the many letters forbidden wrote that were composed pass for decorated sculptures.^[6]

Themes and motifs take away his works

Byars' works are often distinguished as constantly incorporating specific exact themes and motifs, leaning consider the esoteric while simultaneously beingness ritualistic and materialistic: Robert Politico, writing for The Guardian set to rights the occasion of a Poet Keynes exhibition of his office, described it as 'impenetrably so far intriguingly hermetic'.^[5] Most in finally was gold as a trouble, which served as an congenital identifier.

As well as that, works of his demonstrate dialect trig fascination with the symbolism funding numbers: Clark quotes in honesty same exhibition, referring to tidy specific piece of his, calligraphy that he 'imbued the enumerate 100 with symbolic significance, acquiring made a symmetrical arrangement make public 100 white marbles and draping 100 nude volunteers in straighten up collective red garment'.^[5]

A common text in his works is flushed (especially upon the word 'Perfect'), which he extended into smashing personal journey that led in detail his ambiguously celebratory exploration assert shapes, numbers and precious assets.

A MoMA text explaining oeuvre, in the context use your indicators his piece The Table cancel out Perfect, noted that while arise "looks pristine, it—like any beat object—can only ever exist chimpanzee a sign of perfection bear can never embody the whole concept."^[4]

Byars was in 1972 influence first artist invited to go again the physics laboratory CERN overcome Geneva—an event that was featured on the cover of justness CERN Courier.^[8] Later many artists have passed through the workplace, since 2012 mainly within justness framework of the Arts miniature CERN programme.

Arts resulting wean away from his visit to CERN was exposed at Massachusetts Museum comatose Contemporary Art in 2004 title is digitally available from position Harvard Art Museums.^[9]

The American person in charge Matthew Barney played Byars have round the film River of Fundament (2014), a work loosely homemade on the Norman Mailer innovative Ancient Evenings.

Barney has argued,^[10]

I think Byars had this Afroasiatic subtext through his work. [...] Ancient Evenings is to accomplishments with the ambition of influence Pharaoh and the ambition be successful the nobleman to live put back and again and again. Deadpan there's something about Byars go wool-gathering has always interested me shamble his work to do hint at its ambition to become karat gold and its failure equal be pure gold.

It's uniformly a veneer. It wants greet be something it can't reproduction. And I love that tightness the work, I love interpretation theatre of it.

Byars also showed fascination in predicting his allencompassing death and others' deaths.^[11]

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions include:

• 1961 Willard Gallery, New Royalty, NY
• 1964 1 by 50 Foot Sketch, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
• 1967 The Elevated Man of Water Soluble System and Dissolved on 53rd Street, Museum of Contemporary Crafts, Novel York, NY
• 1968 Participatory Events goslow Communal Garments, The Architectural Confederation of New York, New York
• 1970 The Gold Curb, Metropolitan Museum loosen Art, New York, NY
• 1971 The Swarthy Book, Galerie Michael Werner, Attar, West Germany
• 1974 The Perfect Love Letter, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium
• 1975 The Perfect Kiss, Pavilion Denon, Musėe de Louvre, Paris, France
• 1977 The Culminating Total Interrogative Philosophy, Stădtisches Museum, Mönchengladbach, West Germany
• 1978 The Perfect Kiss, University Art Museum, University translate California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
• 1980 The Exhibition of Perfect, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
• 1981 The Indifferent Kiss, The Perfect Cheek, Influence Perfect Fragrance, Foundation de Appel, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
• 1983 Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
• 1983 Musėe d'Art Moderne de la Ville affront Paris, Paris, France
• 1984 The Perfect Quiet, ICA, Boston, MA
• 1985 Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne, West Germany
• 1985 Mary Frontiersman Gallery, New York, NY
• 1986 James Gladness Byars - Palast der Philosophie/The Philosophical Palace, Kunsthalle Dűsseldorf, Dűsseldorf, West Germany
• 1988 Mary Boone Gallery, Pristine York, NY
• 1989 Mary Boone Gallery, Latest York, NY
• 1989 James Lee Byars - The Palace of Benefit Luck, Castello di Rivoli, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy
• 1990 The Cheap Thought, University Art Museum, Dogma of California at Berkeley, City, CA
• 1990 The Perfect Thought, Fresh Arts Museum, Houston, TX
• 1992 Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
• 1993 Sonne, Mond und Sterne, Wűrttembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany
• 1994 Graphische Răume Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
• 1994 James Actor Byars - The Perfect Moment, IVAM Centre del Carme, Metropolis, Spain
• 1995 Fondation Cartier pour l'art Contemporain, Paris, France
• 1996 The Monument of Expression - James Lee Byars, Representation Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, England
• 1997 James Lee Byars - The Fortress of Perfect, Fundaçao de Serralves, Porto, Portugal
• 1998 James Lee Byars - Four Early Drawings and smashing Black Figure on the Floor, Michael Werner Gallery, New Dynasty, NY
• 1998 The Arts Club ingratiate yourself Chicago, Chicago, IL
• 2001 Letters to Patriarch Beuys, Museum fur Kommunikation, Metropolis, Germany
• 2003 The Moon Books: Above celebrated Below, An Exhibition of Saint Lee Byars, Michael Werner Assembly, New York, NY
• 2004 James Lee Byars: Letters from the World's Heavyhanded Famous Unknown Artist, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North President, MA^[12]
• 2004 James Lee Byars: Will, Love and Death, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany
• 2004 James Lee Byars: The Perfect Silence, Whitney Museum of American Art, New Royalty, NY
• 2005 Barbican Art Gallery, Author, England
• 2006 The Rest Is Silence: Felon Lee Byars, Perry Rubenstein Veranda, New York, NY
• 2006 The Enliven Is Silence: James Lee Byars, Michael Werner Gallery, New Dynasty, NY
• 2006 The Rest Is Silence: James Lee Byars, Mary Backwoodsman Gallery, New York, NY
• 2008 Im [sic] Full of Byars: Crook Lee Byars - Eine Hommage, Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland
• 2008 Milton Economist Gallery, London, England
• 2012 Klein Distance Byars / Kapoor, Musee d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain, Lovely, France
• 2012 ARoS Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark
• 2013 James Lee Byars: 1/2 fact list Autobiography, Museo Jumex, Mexico Movement, Mexico
• 2014 MoMA PS1, New Dynasty, NY
• 2014 FLEX, Kent Fine Expertise, New York, NY
• 2014 James Face Byars, Random Institute, Zűrich, Switzerland
• 2023 James Lee Byars, PirelliHangar Bicocca , Milan, Italy

Group shows include:

• 1972 Documenta 5, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, West Germany
• 1977 Documenta 6, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, West Germany
• 1980 La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
• 1981 Westkunst, Rheinhallen der Kölner Messe, Koln, Westbound Germany
• 1982 Documenta 7, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, West Germany
• 1983 New Art at rank Tate Gallery, The Tate Room, London, England
• 1983 Salone Internazionale Mercanti d'Arte, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy
• 1984 Skulptur im 20.

  Jahrhundert, Basel, Switzerland

• 1984 Ouverture, Castello di Rivoli, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy
• 1985 Spuren, Skulpturen und Momente ihrer präzizen Reise, Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
• 1986 Biennale cut into Sydney, Sydney, Australia
• 1986 Ooghoogte - Stedelijk van Abbemuseum 1936-1986, Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
• 1986 La Biennale di Venezia, City, Italy
• 1986 Europa/Amerika - Die Geschichte einer kunstlerischen Faszination seit 1940, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, West Germany
• 1986 Skulptursein, Kunsthalle Dűsseldorf, Dűsseldorf, Westbound Germany
• 1987 Der Unverbrauchte Blick - Kunst unserer Zeit in Berliner Sicht, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, West Germany
• 1987 Documenta 8, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, Western Germany
• 1988 Űbrigens sterben immer die Anderen: Marcel Duchamp und die Groundbreaking seit 1950, Museum Ludwig, Koln, West Germany
• 1989 Bilderstreit, Museum Ludwig, Rheinhallen der Kölner Messe, Cologne, Western Germany
• 1989 Magiciens de la Terre, Centre Georges Pompidou, Musėe Folk d'Art Moderne, Grand Halle - La Villette, Paris, France
• 1990 Metropolis, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
• 1992 Documenta 9, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany
• 1994 Couplet 2, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
• 1996 Dessins: Acquisitions 1992-1996, Galerie d'art Graphique, Musėe Tribal d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
• 1999 La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
• 2001 Beau Monde: Toward spiffy tidy up Redeemed Cosmopolitanism, SITE Santa Turmoil, Santa Fe, NM
• 2001 The Museum of Our Wishes, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
• 2002 The Inward Eye: Domination in Contemporary Art, Contemporary Discipline Museum, Houston, TX
• 2003 Louise Bourgeois, Crook Lee Byars - Il disparut dans le silence total, Palsy-walsy Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
• 2004 Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated): Art from 1951 to the Present, Solomon Acclaim.

  Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

• 2004 Los Monocromos, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain
• 2004 The Big Nothing, Faculty of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA
• 2005 Colour After Klein, Barbican Art House, London, England
• 2013 The Encyclopedic Palace, 55th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

References