Souvenirs

Artist Barton Lidice Benes 1942 Hackensack, New Jersey - 2012 New York, New York

Date1983

Mediumcollage with paper constructs

Dimensionsframe: 60 × 48 1/8 × 2 3/8 in. (152.4 × 122.2 × 6 cm)

ClassificationsCollage, Montage, & Assemblage

Credit LineAlbuquerque Museum, gift of the Albuquerque Museum Foundation from the Lucia v.B. Batten Estate

Object numberPC2015.26.192

DescriptionLarge gridded collage display with 42 individual squares with pieces of folded currency from different countries folded into shapes that reflect on the country they are from, sculptural text readings "souvenirs" at the bottom.

On View

Not on view

Text Entries

Label Text

Barton Lidicé Beneš

1942 Hackensack, New Jersey - 2012 New York, New York

Souvenirs

1983

collage with paper constructs

Albuquerque Museum, gift of the Albuquerque Museum Foundation from the Lucia v.B. Batten Estate

PC2015.26.192

Souvenirs presents a visual typology of world currency. The masterfully cut and folded banknotes make a reference to a cultural aspect of each country represented. Souvenirs brings into question tourist culture and how we come to value material objects. Barton Lidicé Beneš combined his love for collecting and traveling with his art practice. After his passing, his entire home, which he likened to living in “a seventeenth century curio cabinet” was donated to the North Dakota Museum of Art, where it was recreated as a period room, representing an example of a 20th century artist’s studio.