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The king of curiosities: New York artist Barton Benes bequeaths his irresistibly weird collection of pop artifacts to a museum in ... North Dakota? (art).
Visit artist Barton Lidice Benes's apartment in New York City's West Village and you may feel you're in a dream. Meticulously organized cabinets brim with macabre and mirth-inducing objects. Stuffed heads of wild animals festoon the walls, bone chips of Catholic saints hang in the kitchen, and on Benes's worktable the gallstones of actor Larry Hagman are proudly played near a straw used by Lewinsky. If what you see isn't enough, consider this: At Benes's death, this whole apartment is headed for a museum in North Dakota.
"Living in my apartment is like living in a 17th-century curio cabinet," says Benes, a 59-year-old maker of modern relics whose work has been attacked in British tabloids and featured on the cover of ARTnews. "I've been fascinated by relics ever since I took a monk's bone from the catacombs in Rome in 1963."
He's been busy. His 850-square-foot apartment is crammed with thousands of artifacts, including a statue of the Virgin Mary created by Benes from dollar bills, numerous African carvings, and a mummified Egyptian catfish that he says "smells like bouillon."
Benes has been HIV-positive since 1986 and suffers from emphysema This past spring, after a period of ill health, he made arrangements with the North Dakota Museum of Art in Grand Forks, whose curators will videotape, document, and measure everything to re-create his apartment in their museum on the American Great Plains.
But why is Benes donating his life's work to a museum in North Dakota? The story begins in 1993, when Benes created "Lethal Weapons," a highly controversial exhibit made up of 30 artworks filled with his own blood, including a Molotov cocktail, a water pistol, and a perfume atomizer. The show opened in Lund, Sweden, after government health officials had forced Benes to heat the artworks at a temperature of 160 degrees in a hospital oven to make them safe for public viewing. "Lethal Weapons" ...
- Art gala: North Dakota Museum of Art plans benefit dinner, silent auction.
- News wire article from: Grand Forks Herald (Grand Forks, ND) January 27, 2006 700+ words
...27--The 15th annual North Dakota Museum of Art Gala Benefit...dinner will be in the North Dakota Museum of Art galleries...based artist Barton Benes, Linda Welker of Portland...and exhibitions at the North Dakota Museum of Art. For more...
- North Dakota.(art dealers and museums)(Directory)
- Magazine article from: Art in America January 1, 1999 700+ words
...plains.nodak.edu U FARGO 4215. North Dakota State University Memorial Union...nodak.edu U GRAND FORKS 4216. North Dakota Museum of Art Box 7305, University...Artists exhibited: Barton Lidice Benes, Ignacio Iturria, Lois Johnson...
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North Dakota earned a rating upgrade this past year...officials to turn instead to the Bank of North Dakota, the only state-owned bank in the...said Karlene Fine, director of the North Dakota Building Authority and North Dakota...
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...Bond Buyer) Byline: Elizabeth Carvlin North Dakota lawmakers this year are grappling with...bonding power. The state established the North Dakota Transmission Authority in 2005, authorizing...are considering the creation of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority, which would have...
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- News wire article from: Bismarck Tribune (Bismarck, ND) March 7, 2006 700+ words
...7--Oil producers are worried that North Dakota and other states are part of an anomaly...price of sweet crude oil produced in North Dakota has dropped as low as $36 a barrel...upper $50 to $60 a barrel range. "North Dakota is getting hosed, and probably Montana...
- Poll: North Dakota Farm Crisis Is Worse than Crisis of 1980s.(Knight...
- Newspaper article from: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Bonham, Kevin December 21, 1999 700+ words
...communities. At least five out of six North Dakota farmers and ranchers are very concerned...Those results come from the latest North Dakota Rural Life Poll, a survey of 680 farm operators in North Dakota, released last week by the Institute...
- Directory of members.(North Dakota Academy of Science)(Directory)
- Magazine article from: Proceedings of the North Dakota Academy of Science April 1, 2004 700+ words
...Allan Ashworth Dept of Geosciences, North Dakota State University Fargo, ND 58105...Anatomy & Cell Biology University of North Dakota Grand Forks, ND 58202 701 777 4970...net David L. Berryhill 101 Robinson North Dakota State University Fargo, ND 58105 701...
- 'GO LOCAL NORTH DAKOTA' Web Site Links Consumers with Healthcare Resources.
- Press release article from: M2 Presswire September 29, 2008 700+ words
...PRESSWIRE-29 September 2008-University Of North Dakota: 'GO LOCAL NORTH DAKOTA' Web Site Links Consumers with Healthcare...29092008 MANDAN, N.D. -- People throughout North Dakota now have a free, fast, and easy way to find...
- Food Made from North Dakota Crops Could Alleviate Health Problems, Experts Say.
- Newspaper article from: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News May 2, 2002 700+ words
...2--Food made from crops grown in North Dakota could help solve the nation's biggest...Center in Grand Forks, focused on how North Dakota commodities could be promoted for their...nutrition center. One way to promote North Dakota products, Dorgan suggested, may be...
- DELEGATION URGES DISASTER DECLARATION FOR NORTH DAKOTA.
- News wire article from: The America's Intelligence Wire December 3, 2008 700+ words
...Delegation Urges Disaster Declaration for North Dakota Counties December 3, 2008 Washington...disaster declaration is needed to help North Dakota`s farmers and ranchers recover from...declaration request for affected counties in North Dakota. Producers in western North ...
Source: HighBeam Research, The king of curiosities: New York artist Barton Benes bequeaths his...