Barton Lidice Beneš

Barton Lidice Beneš (November 16, 1942, Hackensack, New Jersey – May 30, 2012, New York) was an artist who lived and worked in New York City. He studied at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York and Beaux-Arts, Avignon, France.

Early life Before Beneš attended Pratt Institute, he lived with his grandparents in Brooklyn, New York. As a teenager he made the U.S. Olympic speed skating team, while smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. It became clear around 17 years old that Beneš had a flair for the contradictory, and the romantic. He would often walk around the city bare foot saying “I thought it was romantic to be a pig”. Around this time in his life Beneš would sneak out and go to a mob-run gay bar named New Colony. While spending time there he was asked to complete an installation for customers to view. After being hired for his first piece he was given a job designing window installations for New Colony. While working for New Colony he met a man named Howard Meyer.

Beneš and Howard soon moved in with each other and began their careers from home. Not soon after in 1969 Beneš was contracted and put on his first exhibit “Leather and Lace”, a show involving him strapped naked to a padded leather table. He was then changed when he traveled to Africa to create his last painting. While in Africa his views of art evolved towards an obsession with Africa's tribal culture, artifacts, and erotica.

On one evening in 1990 Beneš cut his hand while preparing dinner. Being used to fact that his blood is toxic he rushed for bleach. Before retrieving the bleach however, he began to focus on the idea that his blood contained a dualistic meaning. Responding to the experience he began a series of pieces titled “Lethal Weapons”, a series of 8 shadow boxes, each containing a different weapon containing his blood. During the first showing of his exhibit in 1990 his pieces were disinfected at 160 degrees in a hospital oven while in Lund, Sweden due to the extreme level of discomfort that the patrons were experiencing.