Barton Lidicé Beneš

Barton Lidicé Beneš was born in New Jersey in 1942 and died in New York in 2012.  He studied painting at the Pratt Institute, New York, in 1960 and graphics at the Académie des Beaux-Arts, Avignon, France, in 1968. His work is included in the collections of the National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France.  Beneš uses all sorts of found objects, as well as objects collected in his travels around the world, to create his collages, sculptures, and assemblages.  His works are humorous explorations of societal customs and assumptions.  In 1983 Beneš made a series of collages and paper sculptures from six million dollars in shredded bills he was given by the Federal Reserve Board.  In the wake of the AIDS epidemic, Beneš tackled the issue by using controversial materials such as AIDS victims’ cremated remains and HIV-positive blood. With a lighter perspective, his pieces often include visual puns and are often crafted to look as if they were made from other media.  The artist extends his punning to the titles, whose meaning becomes central to the objects.

*Excerpted from Tools as Art: The Hechinger Collection, published by Harry N. Abrams Inc.