Mixed media, shredded currency on wove paper. Two pieces in plex-glass frame, signed lower left 1987. Each measures 8 in. high (20cm) x 11 in. wide (28cm). Plexi-glass box frame measures 22 in. high (56cm) x  16 in. wide (41cm).

Barton Lidice Benes, a New York sculptor who worked in materials that he called artifacts of everyday life, expanded his definition of 'everyday' as he went. He used the everyday mementos of childhood in his early work, and later made sculptures from chopped up, everyday American cash (purchased pre-shredded from the Federal Reserve).

Barton Lidice Benes was born in Hackensack, N.J. on Nov. 16, 1942, the son of Marie and Richard Benes. His father, a son of Czech immigrants, gave him his middle name in memory of Lidice, a Czech town destroyed by the Nazis in 1942. After his parents divorced, Barton and his mother lived in Queens with his Czech-born grandparents, who were steeped in Roman Catholic traditions of honoring the relics of saints, including their bones.

Mr. Benes's younger brother, Warren, attributed the artist's interest in artifacts partly to his frequent visits to the American Museum of Natural History. "He would have been happy to spend the rest of his life inside one of those dioramas," Warren Benes said.

Mr. Benes graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He first gained notice for a series of pieces, including a statue of the Virgin Mary, in which he used shredded United States currency. 

Condition: In very good condition. No issues to note.