2011 Annual Report - Visiting Nurse Service of New York

6 ANNUAL REPORT 2011
Barton
Benes
To artist Barton Benes, there is no place like
home. To everyone who visits, there is, quite
literally, no place like Mr. Benes’ home.
Every inch of the jam-packed apartment contains a story. There
are the African masks, voodoo totems, a taxidermy collection
featuring a giraffe head (and neck) and a bull who ran in Pamplona,
and an intricate wood-carved opium den he recently ordered on
eBay. Among objects he has collected for his provocative artwork
are jellybeans from the desk of Ronald Reagan, a golden crown
made from the dung of Queen Elizabeth’s horses, and a threefoot-tall
hourglass whose sands of time are the cremated ashes
of two friends, a couple who died of AIDS. While the eccentric
collection may not be for everyone, Mr. Benes has curated and
created a one-of-a-kind place that is truly his castle.
“He has a collection that the Museum of Natural History would
cry over,” says Dyan Summers, a nurse with VNSNY’s Manhattan
Acute Care program who visits Mr. Benes twice a week, more if
needed. “He’s one of the most creative artists I’ve ever met, being
able to use any little scrap to make art. He’s always looking for the
potential in something.”
Barton Benes, on his one-of-a-kind collection: “Everyone has something special
or weird that they don’t know what to do with. I always end up with it.”