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Barton Benes - Curiosa
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"Petits fours", 2003
30 x 28 cm
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Barton Benes collects curios, i.e. not explicitly recognizable fragmentary objects. Since the artist’s purpose is not to write any transparent story for them, they, as a consequence, experience change and metamorphosis.
A human bone from the Saint Sebastian catacombs in Rome, which found its way to Barton Benes’s pocket forty years ago, was the starting point of it all. The next increment to be collected was the content of a drawer in the bedside table of a deceased friend. Since the family considered these odds and ends of no importance, the artist was able to keep them as souvenirs. These relics did, in their own way, document the life of the departed friend.
Barton Benes neither would nor could do away with them. As friends and acquaintances became aware of his archive making, they supplied the artist with debris of their own.
Benes’s artistic recognition brought celebrities from all social spheres to send him personal discards.
Benes mounted these curios on cardboard (either sheets or closets), labeled them in his characteristic handwriting and assembled them into "mini-museums", all featuring a different theme.
Money in its actual physical sense has been a major concern to the artist, and the money theme has in turn generated innumerable variations. His souvenirs are carried out in paper money. Assembling various foreign currencies, he has created objects typical of various countries. He has also used lacerated, shredded American dollars, which in plaits or braids have coalesced to form an altogether new, unique object.
The loss of numerous friends has left its stamp on Barton Benes. His works appeal to memory and association. His work made of pills and lozenges actually generate conflicting associations and interpretations: presented on glass pedestals as in a pastry shop or confectionery, the medicines become sweet colored candies, disaffected or estranged from their former intent, which was to prolong or save life.
Benes’ work has a definitely conceptual character. Through contact with fame, the discarded objects are granted consideration and relevance. What seems merely amusing at first sight gets a deeper significance when analyzed at close range. The matching and sequential presentation of curios in Benes’ work confronts the spectator with his own voyeurism.
Gallery Gisèle Linder will also experience metamorphosis through the American artist. For a short period, until May 17, Barton Benes’ curios will be exhibited in the Basel Gallery known above all for focusing on concrete and monochrome art.
Marion Wild
Translation: Solange Schnall
New York March 2003
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