Barton Lidice Benes, Suicide Note, Framed Conceptual Art Piece Assemblage Collage

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Barton Benes (November 16, 1942 - Hackensack, New Jersey – May 30, 2012 - New York) … Read more Size is without frame
Barton Benes (November 16, 1942 - Hackensack, New Jersey – May 30, 2012 - New York) was an artist who lived and worked in New York City. He studied at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York and Beaux-Arts, Avignon, France.
Before Benĕs attended Pratt Institute, he lived with his grandparents in Brooklyn, New York. As a teenager he made the U.S. Olympic speed skating team, while smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. It became clear around 17 years old that Barton had a flair for the contradictory, and the romantic. He would often walk around the city bare foot saying “I thought it was romantic to be a pig”. Around this time in his life Benĕs would sneak out and go to a mob-run gay bar named New Colony. While spending time there he was asked to complete an installation for customers to view. After being hired for his first piece he was given a job designing window installations for New Colony. While working for New Colony he met a man named Howard Meyer.
His work bears hallmarks of Pop Art and conceptual Art.
While Benĕs was using his Aunt Evelyn as a prompt for his art, a hustler that was hired by Benĕs began an affair with his lover Howard. Aunt Evelyn who had begun writing to Bartons friends, also began writing to the hustler Barton’s lover Howard was having the affair with. During the affair the hustler responded to Aunt Evelyn informing her of what her letters were being used for. This led to a falling out between Benĕs and his Aunt, she threatened to sue him then immediately stopped all communication with her Nephew. Later in life Benĕs attempted to reconnect with his aunt but his efforts were not successful.
Beněs made museumssomewhat in the style of Joseph Cornell, which incorporate into shadow boxes bits and pieces that reveal the myths and ironies of life. The fragments in Beneš's museums often involve famous people and events, as do the sixteen collaged bits in this print, from a piece of Elizabeth Taylor's shoe to a crumb from the wedding cake of the Prince of Wales.
Barton became an advocate for the destigmatizing of AIDS. From 2003-2009 he served on the board of Visual AIDS. His artwork became a visual representation of AIDS and its history. Benĕs finds the eroticism of his illness. He uses eroticism to cope with the world around him. When two of his friends died, as a tribute to the couple he placed both of their ashes into a three meter high hourglass. Forever binding his friends in death.
Beneš's apartment in New York contained his collection of over $1 million worth of African, Egyptian, and contemporary art, as well as his own. After his death in 2012 the interior of his apartment, including his shadow box museums, was relocated and reconstructed at the North Dakota Museum of Art, under the supervision of his friend and colleague Laurel Reuter, director of the museum. The exhibit opened in late 2013 and is called Barton's Place.

His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at The Cleveland Museum of Art; North Dakota Museum of Art; The Katonah Museum of Art; The New York Public Library; and Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as Centre Pompidou, Paris; Boras Konstmuseum, Sweden; and Old Town Hall, Prague. His work is in the permanent collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, The Smithsonian, The U.S. Mint and North Dakota Museum of Art. Beneš is represented by Pavel Zoubok Gallery in New York. See less