1932
Born Detroit, Michigan
1997
Dies in Cairo, Egypt
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1958
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1961
Willard Gallery, New York
1963
Paper of Kyoto, floor plan of a temple, Kyoto
1964
1 x 50 Foot Drawing, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh
1967
The Giant Man of Water Soluble Paper and Dissolved on 53rd Street, Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York
1968
The World Question Center, The Hudson Institute, Croton-on-Hudson
1969
The World Question on Belgian TV, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax
Wide White Space Gallery, Antwerp
1971
The Golden Curb, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Black Book, Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne
1972
Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne
1973
Wide White Space Gallery, Antwerp
1974
The Perfect Love Letter, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
The Golden Tower, Galerie Rudolph Springer, Berlin
1975
The First Letter Show, Galerie Toni Gerber, Bern
The Holy Ghost: Opening of the Celibatarian Machine, Piazza San Marco, Venice
The Perfect Kiss, Pavillon Denon, Musée du Louvre, Paris
The Autobiography. The Perfect Epitaph. The 25 Philosophers of Amsterdam Live, I do nothing, The Wand, Galerie de Appel, Amsterdam
1976
The Perfect Performance is to Stand Still, I.C.C., Antwerp
The Play of Death, Domhotel, Cologne
1977
The Hundred One Page Book, Galerie Rolf Preisig, Basel
The First Total Interrogative Philosophy, Städtisches Museum, Mönchengladbach
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
Hear TH FI TO IN PH around this chair and it knocks you out, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York
1978
The Perfect Kiss, University of California Berkeley Art Museum
The Exhibition of Perfect, Kunsthalle Bern; Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard, Cambridge
1981
The Perfect Kiss, De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam
The Very Great Search for James Lee Byars, Palm House of De Hortus Botanicus, De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam
James Lee Byars - Sechs Arbeiten, Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne
The Classical Exhibition of the Be Quiet, Galerie Helen van der Meij, Amsterdam
The Signature of the Artist, Galerie Claude Givaudan, Geneva
1982
James Lee Byars im Westfälischen Kunstverein, Westfälischen Kunstverein, Münster
1983
Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1984
The Perfect Quiet, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne
The Perfect Death, Philadelphia Museum of Art
1985
Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne
Mary Boone/Michael Werner, New York
1986
The Spinning Oracle of Delphi, Delphi
The Philosophical Palace, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
James Lee Byars - Beauty Goes Avantgarde, Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne
1987
James Lee Byars - Zeichnungen, Galerie Fred Jahn, Munich
The Letter Reading Society of James Lee Byars, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
1988
Mary Boone/Michael Werner, New York
Hoffman Borman Gallery, Santa Monica
1989
The Moment of Cleopatra, Cleto Polcina Arte Moderna, Rome
James Lee Byars - Old New Work, Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York
Mary Boone Gallery, New York
James Lee Byars - The Palace of Good Luck, Castello di Rivoli, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Turin
Galerie de France, Paris
Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne
1990
The Perfect Thought, University of California Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley
1991
James Lee Byars - The Path of Luck, Michael Werner Gallery, New York
James Lee Byars - Neue Arbeiten, Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne
1992
The Self Portrait of James Lee Byars, Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York
The Thinking Field, Mary Boone Gallery, New York
Is - James Lee Byars, Galeria La Máquina Española, Madrid
Magasin 3, Stockholm Konsthall
Galerie de France, Paris
Alhambra Foundation, Granada
1993
Sun Moon and Stars, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart
James Lee Byars - Is Is, Mulier Mulier Gallery, Knokke-Heist
The Perfect Moment, Galerie Rigassi, Bern
Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
SCAI The Bathhouse, Shiraishi Contemporary Art, Tokyo
Works from the Sixties, Michael Werner Gallery, New York
Recent Works, Michael Werner Gallery, New York
1994
James Lee Byars - Frühe und neue Objekte, Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne
The Death of James Lee Byars, Galerie Marie-Puck Broodthaers, Brussels
James Lee Byars - The Perfect Love, Laura Carpenter Fine Art, Santa Fe
Graphische Räume Museum Ludwig, Cologne
James Lee Byars - Drawings (Moon - Eros), SCAI The Bathhouse, Shiraishi Contemporary Art, Tokyo
The Perfect Moment, IVAM Centre del Carme, Valencia
1995
The White Mass, St. Peter's Cathedral, Cologne
Artek Gallery, Helsinki
James Lee Byars - Perfect is my Death Word, Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen
James Lee Byars - Five Points Make A Man, The Moons and Constellations, Michael Werner Gallery, New York
The Monument to Language/The Diamond Floor, Fondation Cartier pour l'art Contemporain, Paris
1996
The Monument to Language, The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
James Lee Byars - The Angel, Michael Werner Gallery, New York
Centro Damián Bayón, Instituto de América de Santa Fé, Granada
1997
James Lee Byars, Galerie Stadtpark, Krems
James Lee Byars: The Palace of Perfect, Fundação de Serralves, Porto
1998
James Lee Byars: Four Early Drawings and a Black Figure on the Floor, Michael Werner Gallery, New York
James Lee Byars, The Arts Club of Chicago
1999
Michael Werner Gallery, New York and Cologne
The Epitaph of Con. Art is Which Questions Have Disappeared?, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover
2000
The Poetic Conceit and Other Black Works, Michael Werner Gallery, New York and Cologne
2001
Galerie Er Rashid, Düsseldorf
Letters to Joseph Beuys, Museum für Kommunikation, Frankfurt am Main
Works on Paper from the 1960s and 1990s and Sculpture from the 1990s, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago
Ephemera, Low, Los Angeles
2002
The Angel, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
2003
The Moon Books: Above and Below, An Exhibition of James Lee Byars, Michael Werner Gallery, New York
2004
James Lee Byars: Letters from the World's Most Famous Unknown Artist, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams
James Lee Byars, Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston
James Lee Byars: Life, Love and Death, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt am Main
James Lee Byars: The Perfect Silence, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
2005
James Lee Byars: Selected Works, Baldwin Gallery, Aspen
James Lee Byars, Barbican Art Gallery, London
James Lee Byars, Griffin Contemporary, Santa Monica
Lothar Baumgarten. James Lee Byars. In Progress IV Für Harald Szeemann, Kewenig Galerie, Cologne
2006
James Lee Byars: The Rest is Silence, Michael Werner Gallery, Perry Rubenstein Gallery and Mary Boone Gallery, New York
2007
James Lee Byars: The Art of Writing, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
2008
James Lee Byars: JB: Q.I.I.T.R. T.F.T.I.P. T.S.T., Galerie de France, Paris and Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne
James Lee Byars: Five Points Make a Man, Michael Werner Gallery, New York
I'm Full of Byars: James Lee Byars - Eine Hommage, Kunstmuseum Bern; Milton Keynes Gallery, London
2009
James Lee Byars Lived Here, Milton Keynes Gallery, Palazzo Pesaro Papafava, Venice
2011
Ordinary Madness, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
2012
James Lee Byars, Overduin & Kite, Los Angeles
The Monument to Cleopatra, Michael Werner Gallery, New York
2013
Early Works & The Angel, Michael Werner Gallery, London
James Lee Byars: The Philosophical Nail -Wunderkammer-, Meessen De Clercq, Brussels
1/2 An Autobiography, Museo Jumex, Mexico City
2014
UROBOROS - James Lee Byars encounters Leon Battista Alberti, Museo Marino Marini, Florence
Is Is and Other Works, Michael Werner Gallery, New York
1/2 An Autobiography, MoMA PS1, New York
2015
The Diamond Floor, Michael Werner Gallery, London
The Moon Column and The Figure of Death, Michael Werner Gallery, New York
The Poetic Conceit and Other Works, VW (VeneKlasen/Werner), Berlin
2016
James Lee Byars, Mendes Wood DM, Sao Paulo
James Lee Byars: Sphere Is a Sphere Is a Sphere Is a Sphere, Peter Lund, Oslo
James Lee Byars: The Figure of Question is in the Room, André Viana, New York
2017
James Lee Byars: The Golden Tower, at the 57th edition of the Venice Biennale, Campo San Vio, Venice
2018
James Lee Byars: The Perfect Kiss, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp
2019
James Lee Byars: World Question Center, Kewenig Galerie, Berlin; Kewenig Galerie, Palma
James Lee Byars: Back in Detroit, Elaine L. Jacob Gallery, Wayne State University, Detroit
James Lee Byars: Works 1974 – 1994, Michael Werner Gallery, London
James Lee Byars, Michael Werner Gallery, New York
2020
James Lee Byars "Kishoushi" (the Poetic Conceit), SCAI The Bathhouse, Tokyo
2021
James Lee Byars: The Milky Way, Michael Werner Gallery, New York
James Lee Byars: The Perfect Moment, Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing
James Lee Byars: The Milky Way and The Star Man, Michael Werner Gallery, London
James Lee Byars/Shōji Hamada, Michael Werner Gallery, East Hampton
2022
James Lee Byars: The Chair for the Philosophy of Question, Michael Werner Gallery, East Hampton
2023
Invisible Questions That Fill the Air: James Lee Byars and Seung-taek Lee, Michael Werner Gallery, London
James Lee Byars, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan
2024
Invisible Questions That Fill the Air: James Lee Byars and Seung-taek Lee, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Palazzo Loredan, Venice
James Lee Byars: Perfect Is the Question, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Parque del Retiro, Palacio de Velázquez, Madrid
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1972
documenta V
1976
Drawing Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1977
documenta VI
Werke aus der Sammlung Crex, Ink, Zurich
1980
Venice Biennale, Venice
1982
Zeitgeist, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
documenta VII
1983
Sammlung Speck, Haus Esters und Haus Lange, Krefeld
New Art at the Tate Gallery, The Tate Gallery, London
1984
Skulptur im 20. Jahrhundert, Merian Park, Basel
1986
Choices: Making an Art of Everyday Life, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York
Sammlung Toni Gerber ans Kunstmuseum Bern, 1. Teil, Kunstmuseum Berne
Venice Biennale, Venice
1987
Die Gleichzeitigkeit des Anderen, Kunstmuseum, Bern
Übrigens sterben immer die Anderen, Marcel Duchamp und die Avantgarde seit 1950, Museum Ludwig, Cologne
documenta VIII
1990
Vies d'artistes, Musée des Beaux-Arts André Malraux, Le Havre
1994
Couplet 2, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
1996
Dessins: acquisitions 1992-1996, Galerie d'Art Graphique, Musée
National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1997
Notfalls leben wir auch ohne Herz. Exemplarischen aus der Sammlung
Speck, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna
1999
Venice Biennale
2001
The Museum of our Wishes, Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Beau Monde: Toward a Redeemed Cosmopolitanism, SITE Santa Fe
Alchemie de la rencontre, FRAC/Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain Champagen-Ardenne, Rheims
2002
The Inward Eye: Transcendence in Contemporary Art, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston
2003
Louise Bourgeois, James Lee Byars - Il disparut dans le silence total, Centre Pompidou, Paris
The Invisible Threat: Buddhist Spirit in Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, New York
2004
Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated): Art from 1951 to the Present, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Los Monocromos, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid
The Big Nothing, University of Pennsylvania Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
2005
Private/Corporate III. Sammlung Daimler Chrysler - Sammlung Heliod
Spiekermann, Daimler Chrysler Contemporary, Haus Huth, Berlin
Private view. Colour after Klein, Barbican Art Gallery, London
Sammel-Leidenschaften (Passion for Collecting), Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen
The New Hebrews. A Century of Art in Israel, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
The Red Carpet. Myth, Might and Everyday Life. 5th Summer of Art and Culture 2005, KISS Kunstverein, Kunst im Schloss Untergröningen
Atlas - World Culture in Dialog, HBV Kunst Palais, Munich
A Brief History of Invisible Art, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco
2006
Worlds: James Lee Byars, Jörg Immendorff, Thomas Lehmerer, Hermann Nitsch, Reiner Ruthenbeck and others, Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen
The Materialization of Sensibility: Art and Alchemy, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York
Elemental Form, L&M Arts, New York
Strange Powers, Creative Time, New York
Black and White: Drawings for Summer, Michael Werner Gallery, New York
2007
Selection, Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne
KölnSkulptur 4, Skulpturen Park, Cologne
The Invisible Show, Centro José Guerrero, Granada
Byars & Beuys, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
2008
Power, Foxy Production, New York
Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art, Barbican Art Gallery, London
Old Masters, Modern & Contemporary Art and Fine Arts, Galerie Marie-Puck Broodthaers, Brussels
Pretty Ugly, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York
That Was Then, This is Now, PS1/MoMA, New York
NeoHooDoo: Art of a Forgotten Faith, PS1/MoMA, New York; Miami Art Museum, Miami
2009
The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City
KölnSkulptur 5, Skulpturen Park, Cologne
Doors of Perception: American Art and Asia, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
1968: The Great Innocents, Kunsthalle Bielefeld
The Quick and the Dead, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Deadline, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Nothing Up My Sleeve, Participant Inc, New York
2010
James Lee Byars: From Life to Art and Back Again, Argos Centre for Art & Media, Brussels
The Perfect Axis, Schloss Benrath, Dusseldorf
2011
KölnSkulptur 6, Skulpturen Park, Cologne
Silence and Time, Dallas Museum of Art
Flowers for Summer, Michael Werner Gallery, New York
Our Magic Hour, Yokohama Trienalle 2011
I hate Paul Klee. Papierarbeiten und Künstlerbücher aus der Sammlung Speck, Leopold-Hoesch-Museum & Papiermuseum Düren, Düren
The Joy of Pleasure, VeneKlasen/Werner, Berlin
Locus solus. Impressions of Raymond Roussel, Museum Nacional Centra de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
2012
Spirits of Internationalism: 6 European Collections, 1956-1986, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp
Gold, Belvedere, Vienna
Kewenig Galerie at Salon du Dessin, Palais de la Bourse, Paris
Auf Papier, Kewenig Galerie, Cologne
Klein - Byars - Kapoor, Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain, Nice; ARos Kunstmuseum, Aarhus
sublim.kursiv, AJLart @ Epicentro Art, Berlin
Juwelen im Rheingold: 10 Jahre Sammlung Rheingold, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
The Michael Werner Collection: I sat Beauty on my knees. (...) And I reviled Her., Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
2013
Glam! The Performance of Style, Tate, Liverpool; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz
Shakers and Movers, VeneKlasen/Werner, Berlin
Neunzehnhundertsiebzig. Material, Orte, Denkprozesse, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Luzern
Dreams of Venice, Institut Culturel Bernard Magrez, Bordeaux
Arte Postale, Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz, Berlin
The Encyclopedic Palace, 55th Venice Biennale
2014
Beyond Black, Setareh Gallery, Düsseldorf
Mingei: Are You Here?, Pace Gallery, New York
Kunst und Alchemie: Die heimliche Geliebte, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
Höhenrausch, Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen
Four Decades of Drawing, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco
Variations on a Japanese Garden, La Casa Encendida, Madrid
Anish Kapoor – James Lee Byars, Galerie Kamel Mennour, Paris
Love Story. Sammlung Anne & Wolfgang Titze, Winterpalais, Haus 21, Vienna
A letter always arrives at it’s destination, La Panacée, Montpellier
Mise en scene, Peter's Projects, Santa Fe
Gold, Bass Museum, Miami Beach
Flex, Kent Fine Art, New York
The Sea – salut d'honneur Jan Hoet, Mu.ZEE, Ostende
2015
GOLD, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase
Take Me I'm Yours, Monnaie de Paris, Paris
Winter Show, Kamel Mennour, Paris
2016
Goshka Macuga: To the Son of Man Who Ate the Scroll, Fondazione Prada, Milan
Take Me, I’m Yours, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen; The Jewish Museum, New York
2017
Alchemy: Transformations in Gold, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines
Floor-Naments, Monnaie de Paris, Paris
Spiritualized: As Above So Below, IMMA, Dublin
Alchemy: Transformations in Gold, Akron Art Museum, Akron
The Inaugural Exhibition, 1977: Marcel Broodthaers and James Lee Byars, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York
2018
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, Michael Werner Gallery and TRAMPS, New York
Una furnace a Marsiglia, Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice
Take Me (I’m Yours), Villa Médicis: The French Academy in Rome, Rome
Picasso – Picabia: Histoire de Peinture, Museé Granet, Aix-en-Provence
Vile Bodies, Michael Werner Gallery, New York
Maison Forte, Tour Deaul, Revonnas
2019
El dorado, Musée des Beaux-arts, Lille, France
Reductive Seduction, Chart Gallery, New York
Artistic License: Six Takes on the Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Blickaschen 12, Stiftung Blickachsen, Bad Homburg
2020
Untitled 2020, Palazzo Grassi, Punta della Dogana, Venice
2021
Between the Earth and Sky, Kasmin Gallery, New York
Degree Zero: Drawing at Midcentury, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Gold and Magic, ARKEN Museum for Moderne Kunst, Ishøj, Denmark
Secret Wing, Timișoara National Art Museum, Timișoara, Romania
2023
The Collection: From the Late Medieval Period to Ferdinand Hodler, from Vincent van Gogh to Meret Oppenheim, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern
Frontal Sphinx, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo
Icônes, Punta della Dogana, Venice
2024
Accrochage, Michael Werner Gallery, Athens
To Exalt the Ephemeral: The (Im)permanent Collection, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, California
Everyone is an Artist: Joseph Beuys, Marcel Broodthaers and James Lee Byars, Michael Werner Gallery, London
Searching for Meaning, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo