James Lee Byars – Letters to Joseph Beuys
Event
M HKA, Antwerp
18 June 2000 - 17 September 2000
Writing letters is an essential part of James Lee Byars' oeuvre. His extremely fragile letters can be understood as autonomous works of art. They are visually captivating because of their shape, material diversity, and resourcefulness. Byars had the tendency to cut the letters in all kinds of different, and unusual shapes, like snakes, cirkels, hearts, or even a tower. The letters sometimes took on extraordinary proportions, measuring more than ten meters, so Byars was forced to fold, crumble or staple them, to make them fit an envelope. He wielded everything imaginable as a writing surface, for instance writing-paper taken from hotels or airlines, even paper towel and toilet paper was used to write on. At the same time he was strongly attracted towards exclusive kinds of paper from Japan and China and had a determined preference for the colours gold, red, white and black. He wrote these numerous letters in his characteristic, mysterious handwriting in a anagrammatic structure, using gold, ink or chalk. In a fifteen-year-long correspondance with Joseph Beuys, he filled letters with reflections on art, depression and death. Biographical details and his personal opinions about works of art or events become a manifestation of his philosophical conviction, always with an undertone that is simultaneously charming, ironic and witty. A thorough analysis of the contact between these two artists, provides us with new insights on the development of art in the second half of the 20th century. The exhibition was realised in cooperation with the Museum Schloß Moyland, Bedburg Hau, the Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, het Kunsthaus Zurich and the Museum für Kommunikation, Frankfurt am Main.
