?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
BARTON LIDICÉ BENEŠ (1942-2012)
Talisman. Set of 3 necklaces composed of Y9C 100 mg Retrovir capsules and good luck "Talisman" pieces (a cross, Egyptian mummy charms and a money wishbone) on white wove paper support sheet. 406x381 mm; 16x15 inches (framed). Signed, titled and dated in pencil, lower margin recto. 1996.
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist, private collection, New York.
Initially approved by the U.S. FDA in 1987, Retrovir was indicated to be used in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of HIV-1 infection and later used in the treatment of Reduction of maternal Perinatal Transmission of HIV. Beneš used spiritual icons from different cultures and religions to create talismans that protect its supposed users from HIV/AIDS.
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.
