James Lee Byars: The Perfect Silence

James Lee Byars: The Perfect Silence is the first solo presentation of the work of James Lee Byars (1932-1997) by a New York museum since 1970. The exhibition brings together a group of works spanning the length of Byars's career: a floor sculpture composed of 333 hand-blown red glass spheres, large-scale black ink drawings, a group of carved marble sculptures in wooden vitrines, and The Death of James Lee Byars, a spectacular room clad entirely in gold leaf and which is being presented in its American premiere. Byars's concern with immateriality and lightness is reflected in his sensual use of materials -- slivers of gold leaf, delicate red glass, and the dense purity of white marble and black ink. Like Bill Viola's Five Angels for the Millennium, with which it is presented concurrently, The Perfect Silence speaks of the artist's preoccupation with the great themes of death, transformation, and transience.

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James Lee Byars: The Perfect Silence
Mildred and Herbert Lee Galleries, Floor 2