Fantastic Prophet of Contemporary Art

James Lee Byars loved the fleeting moment, the ephemeral and the imaginary. His performances and activities were often of very short duration. Dressed elegantly at all times in black or gold outfits, Byars knew how to put  the audience under his spell. He also had a flair for using beautiful, solid and gleaming materials such as sandstone, marble, glass and gold which he employed in his sculptures and objects. Byars was always searching for perfection (The Perfect appears in many of the titles of his works) and the spiritual.

An idiosyncratic synthesis of the arts
Byars lived consistently in a world of his own which obeyed its own laws. He saw himself as an autonomous outsider and declined to deal with the conventional. His ideas for megalomaniac projects were subject to almost no limits: thus he conceived of equipping the Museum of Modern Art with inflatable wings or sewing a dress for 500 people. Byars also wrote obsessively to his friends and acquaintances on all kinds of paper. Written in his inimitable handwriting, decorated with gold dust or containing philosophical questions, these letters and communications are poetic works of art. The films in the exhibition of Byars' performances, some being shown for the first time ever, are witness to his scurrility and originality. His life and his work are inseparably fused as a synthesis of the arts.

An American in Bern
Commuting between America, Japan and Europe, James Lee Byars had a particular relationship with Bern. Through his contact with Harald Szeeman who had invited him to the documenta V, he often sojourned in Bern for lengthy periods after 1972. From 1975 onwards, Byars was also included in the program of Toni Gerber's gallery and in 1978 held a large exhibition in the Kunsthalle Bern. Byars also held several performances before an audience in the Museum of Fine Arts Bern in the 1970s and 1980s. Bern was an important location for James Lee Byars and a point of departure for his performances and exhibitions all over Europe. Through donations from the patron of the arts Toni Gerber (who showed Byars' work in his gallery for many years), its own acquisitions as well as through the addition of purchases by the Hermann and Margrit Rupf Foundation, the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Bern has one of the most comprehensive collections of works by Byars;  numerous loans from private and public collections will also be exhibited. Thus, the exhibition offers an overview of the work of an artist who was a dandy, magician and prophet, all at the same time.

Further showings of the exhibition 
Milton Keynes Gallery, London (April 4 - June 21, 2009), Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (September - December 2009)

Images & Documentations