”I see my autobiography as an arbitrary segment of so many pages of time, of things that I have paid attention to at this point in my life,” wrote James Lee Byars (1932–1997) in 1969. He was then 37, about half the average male lifespan at the time, and accordingly thought it appropriate to write his “1/2 autobiography.” Byars’ art ranged from highly refined objects to extremely minimal performance and events, and books, ephemera and correspondence that he distributed widely among friends and colleagues. Today, more than 15 years after his death, assessments of his art must negotiate Byars’ performance of his charismatic self in his life and art. For his first major posthumous survey in the US, exhibition curators Magalí Arriola and Peter Eleey decided to produce a catalogue in two “halves,” playing on his “1/2 autobiography”: a catalogue of the exhibition itself, including new scholarship, and a sourcebook of primary documents. 1/2 an Autobiography, Sourcebook constitutes the latter volume--a reference guide filled with photographs and documents drawn from a variety of archival sources, including The Getty Research Institute, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archives, MoMA and Byars’ own papers. This volume also includes a series of previously unseen interviews that artist and art historian David Sewell conducted with Byars in the late 1970s in preparation for a book that was never published. These discussions cover a number of Byars’ major projects, among them The World Question Center, The Holy Ghost and the artist’s time at CERN.

James Lee Byars: 1/2 an Autobiography, Sourcebook

Arts & Photography

Individual Artists

Walther König, Köln/MoMA PS1/Museo Jumex

Famous for his performances “The Death of James Lee Byars” and “The Perfect Smile,” and for sculptural works that have been described as “austere and rococo, understated and flamboyant,” James Lee Byars (1932–1997) was a legend in his lifetime and an enduringly influential artist since his death at the age of 65. His preferred materials were characterized by strong colors--black, red, gold, pink--and by a sensuous luxuriance, as in his use of folded Japanese paper or silk. This second volume of the two-volume catalogue accompanying the first major posthumous survey on Byars in the US constitutes the catalogue “proper” (the first volume being conceived as a sourcebook), and includes images of works well beyond the scope of the show. Through a selection of more than 125 sculptures, costumes, performable paper works, films, ink paintings, correspondence, ephemera, live performances and documents, the catalogue represents the full scope of the artist’s work. It focuses on the ephemeral and intangible nature of much of Byars’ art, and features several critical texts, including curatorial texts by Peter Eleey and Magalí Arriola; an essay on Byars’ early performances by Ana Janevski from the Department of Media and Performance at MoMA; an essay focusing on his “costume” and performable fabric works by art historian, Pan Wendt; and curator Shinobu Sakagami on Byars’ time in Japan.

James Lee Byars: 1/2 an Autobiography, Exhibition Catalogue

Eleey, Peter

Arriola, Magalí

Janevski, Ana

Wendt, Pan

Sakagami, Shinobu

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Books by Walther König, Köln/MoMA PS1/Museo Jumex