The Disintegration of the Mind. Collage with tissue paper on cream wove paper. 455x610 mm; 18x24 inches. Signed, dated and titled in pencil, lower right recto. 1964.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Barton Lidicé Beneš was a sculptor and visual artist who worked in materials that he described as artifacts from everyday life. He became well-known for his collection and installations of relics ranging from cremation ashes to shredded money to bodily fluids to found objects to celebrity ephemera. Calling these reliquaries "Museums," Beneš' own apartment also became a larger-scale installation of its own, holding memento mori. A veteran of the AIDS crisis, Beneš' work blended activism, poetry, and resistance, forcing a confrontation with death and fears of transmission. His most controversial work was titled Lethal Weapons and featured objects such as a toy gun, darks, and other found objects filled with his own blood.
