The Golden Tower
Byars, James Lee
Berlin. Galerie Springer / Berliner Kunstlerprogram des DAAD. 1974
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A fine copy of James Lee Byars' rare catalogue / invitation / multiple 'The Golden Tower'.
James Lee Byars (1932 - 1997), one of the recipients of the 1974 DAAD Artists-in-Berlin scholarship, planned the construction of a '333-meter-high golden cylinder' in the wasteground by the Berlin Wall that would 'rattle the sky'. Needless to say, that project was unachieved, but Byars' thoughts on the subject did lead to 'The Golden Tower', a 4 metre golden cylinder, and the action 'The First Step of the Golden Tower,' at the Galerie Springer, where visitors were lifted and instructed to speak characteristically gnomic phrases.
For the action Byars designed the present catalogue of gold text (in the form of a solid tower) on two sheets of black paper. The text includes 100 quotations from Shakespeare that feature the use of the word 'gold', as well as German texts on other subjects including aspects of modern physics. The two sheets, when joined, are the same height as Byars: 'dieser katalog hat seine [Byars'] exacte korpergrosse'.
' ... I very cordially invite you to the magnificent No. 1 flabbergast big perfect gorgeous sumptuous monster opulent fabulous fantastic elegant surreptitious lavish wild great fucking rich and formal opening of The Golden Tower at the Springer Gallery accomplished by a gift from eternit [sic] and a generous grant from the Berlin artist program of DAAD an Dec 6 at 9 pm ... '. (Text taken from the catalogue itself; the text is repeated in German).
'Byars is ... a magician of quietude with his performances, paper works, and golden rooms ... Byars consistently used the unpredictability between silent testimony and the artist's momentary presence in the material to reconcile transcendence and a longing for eternity with the ineluctability of physical decay and death. This balance makes him into an exceptional advocate of an art of transition: from reality to imagination, from worldly experience to spiritual principles, but also from a modernism bent on progress to post-modernism's sense of possibility, in which all artistic forms of expression possess equal validity .... But 'The Golden Tower' was neither a fantasy of omnipotence nor an artist's Babylon; instead, Byars regarded it as a mediator between the cosmic and worldly orders: a 'golden needle' that points up into the sky and at the same time falls to earth as a 'golden ray'.' (From 'Magician of Quietude' by Harald Fricke).
James Lee Byars (1932 - 1997), one of the recipients of the 1974 DAAD Artists-in-Berlin scholarship, planned the construction of a '333-meter-high golden cylinder' in the wasteground by the Berlin Wall that would 'rattle the sky'. Needless to say, that project was unachieved, but Byars' thoughts on the subject did lead to 'The Golden Tower', a 4 metre golden cylinder, and the action 'The First Step of the Golden Tower,' at the Galerie Springer, where visitors were lifted and instructed to speak characteristically gnomic phrases.
For the action Byars designed the present catalogue of gold text (in the form of a solid tower) on two sheets of black paper. The text includes 100 quotations from Shakespeare that feature the use of the word 'gold', as well as German texts on other subjects including aspects of modern physics. The two sheets, when joined, are the same height as Byars: 'dieser katalog hat seine [Byars'] exacte korpergrosse'.
' ... I very cordially invite you to the magnificent No. 1 flabbergast big perfect gorgeous sumptuous monster opulent fabulous fantastic elegant surreptitious lavish wild great fucking rich and formal opening of The Golden Tower at the Springer Gallery accomplished by a gift from eternit [sic] and a generous grant from the Berlin artist program of DAAD an Dec 6 at 9 pm ... '. (Text taken from the catalogue itself; the text is repeated in German).
'Byars is ... a magician of quietude with his performances, paper works, and golden rooms ... Byars consistently used the unpredictability between silent testimony and the artist's momentary presence in the material to reconcile transcendence and a longing for eternity with the ineluctability of physical decay and death. This balance makes him into an exceptional advocate of an art of transition: from reality to imagination, from worldly experience to spiritual principles, but also from a modernism bent on progress to post-modernism's sense of possibility, in which all artistic forms of expression possess equal validity .... But 'The Golden Tower' was neither a fantasy of omnipotence nor an artist's Babylon; instead, Byars regarded it as a mediator between the cosmic and worldly orders: a 'golden needle' that points up into the sky and at the same time falls to earth as a 'golden ray'.' (From 'Magician of Quietude' by Harald Fricke).
Folio. Two leaves of thick black paper with gold printed text recto only. English and German text in capitals throughout. Sheet size: 915 x 498 mm; text areas: 671 x 294 mm + 673 x 294 mm. Loose as issued.
#44145
