Featured in Irina Kulik’s next lecture will be artists James Lee Byars and Gino de Dominicis whose names are surrounded by myths and contradictions.
Performance artist and sculptor James Lee Byars (1932–1997) is considered one of the most mysterious and hidden figures in twentieth century art. Inspired by Japan’s Noh drama theater and Shintoism, Byars created elaborate paper works which he exhibited everywhere from Japanese temples to New York galleries. He even suggested installing a thousand-feet-long golden sculpture alongside the Berlin Wall—a dream that never came true. He did however execute a series of golden towers that were shown at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017.
The life of the Italian artist Gino de Dominicis (1947–1998) is steeped in legend to the extent that even when he passed away in 1998, some denied the fact of his death, perhaps, because de Dominicis had teased the public before—by issuing a poster announcing his death back in 1968. As an artist he was interested in performance, film, installation and, in the later years, in painting and sculpture. Although his main themes remained space, time and the hidden nature of things and matter, the figures of man and artist have greatly informed his body of work. Writing about himself on the occasion on the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997, de Dominicis described his practice as independent from trends that developed in the post-World War II era.