Barton Lidice Beneš

Who is Barton Lidice Beneš?

Barton Lidice Beneš was an artist who lived and worked in New York City. He studied at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York and Beaux-Arts, Avignon, France.

Barton Beneš made "museums" somewhat in the style of Joseph Cornell, which incorporate into shadow boxes bits and pieces that reveal the myths and ironies of life. The fragments in Beneš's museums often involve famous people and events, as do the sixteen collaged bits in this print, from a piece of Elizabeth Taylor's shoe to a crumb from the wedding cake of the Prince of Wales. Beneš's travelling exhibition series about AIDS, Lethal Weapons, is the focus of an independent documentary film released in 1997. Among the museums that have acquired his works are the Chicago Art Institute, the National Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Australia, and the North Dakota Museum of Art. Barton Beneš was interviewed in the documentary film Gay Sex in the 70s.