Black Scroll, Gold Pencil Text | Harvard Art Museums

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 2003.80.3
People: James Lee Byars, American (Detroit, MI 1932 - 1997 Cairo, Egypt)
Title: Black Scroll, Gold Pencil Text
Classification: Archival Material
Work Type: archival material
Date: 1979-1980
Culture: American
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/76862

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Gold colored pencil on black paper scroll

Dimensions

1573.7 x 22.2 cm (619 9/16 x 8 3/4 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

inscription: Letter text: Mark, we seem to be doing fine? / A little more Question practice please? / If you ask for something that doesn't exist you deserve it on the intelligence of the reqeust? / Lets invent the Artist At Harvard for the fogg? / I would like to spend a year with much much much interuniversity activity? / It should be a very high paid chair. / What is a Question? / Question makes Quiet? / Increase your seriousness in Q? / Q is now the Harvard Classic? / Q is polite? / Q is a gift? / Q is Reality? / Q takes Name away? / Let's do several Qs at once? / Can't the Fogg help with publicity of May 2?? / I am giving a very great event? / Then? / Please an article by "You" can be Totally Interrogative? / So you can Q and do the Article at once? / Yes? / We must discuss the Budget again? / you once say the Museum could afford 2 openings? / Can't we shift opening money (mine) to a fee for you? / Recall I have worked very hard to raise my fee? / DiD Rockf. Come? / Call? / Can't we Q. and Raise mon. too? / I think my work is very valuable and it is extremely expensive to keep the Exhibition of Perfect so Grand. / So help please? / I think the museum should do much more than for the more normal show? / I am trying to establish that my art is important and at least as expensive as a good painting?/ Can't you call up your Texas Lady? / Wouldn't she Love to buy the Exhibition of Perfect? / If "R" doesn't? / Q is a thing? / Q is a new universal Question? / Love Life Beauty Truth Death? / Mark you know most about this Exhibition (you must be the one to make it History?) Aprophetic Q? / I need to mention the Beauty of the ephemeral (like yesterday was Shakepears [sic] Birthday and the pansies / there's pansies thats [sic] for thought / he abbrev'd himself "SH" / shall we Be "Hax and By."?

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History: James Lee Byars; to Busch-Reisinger Museum, transfer; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2003.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Transfer from the Busch-Reisinger Museum Archives
Accession Year: 2003
Object Number: 2003.80.3
Division: Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact: am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
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Exhibition History

James Lee Byars Letters (title TBD), Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, 01/17/2004 - 06/30/2004

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu

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