{"id":50852,"date":"2024-07-05T07:10:56","date_gmt":"2024-07-05T07:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/us\/book\/james-lee-byars-2\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T15:07:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T15:07:22","slug":"james-lee-byars-2","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/us\/book\/james-lee-byars-2\/","title":{"rendered":"James Lee Byars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Decades after the death of the artist and aesthetic heretic <strong><em>James Lee Byars<\/em><\/strong>, episodes from his life have taken on the aura of urban legend. Born and raised in Detroit, he spent much of his adult life outside the United States. His first sojourn overseas was to Japan in 1958 at age twenty-six, and over the next ten years he traveled between Japan and the U.S. seven times. Later in life he spent several years in Europe, and died in Cairo in 1997. <\/p>\n<p>Curator and art historian Sakagami Shinobu here traces Byars&rsquo;s formative years in Detroit, a period about which virtually nothing has been published. Extensive interviews with those who knew him do much to clarify facts about his early growth as an artist and to provide a picture of the environment that nurtured it. This companion book to the author&rsquo;s lauded <em>James Lee Byars: Days in Japan<\/em> illuminates a similarly crucial yet overlooked period in the artist&rsquo;s development.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Follows the author&rsquo;s 2017 book James Lee Byars: Days in Japan to illuminate a similarly crucial yet overlooked period in the artist&rsquo;s development.<br \/>07&#12288;&#12288;Preface<br \/>\n012&#12288;&#12288;1. 4731 Brooklyn Street<br \/>\n015&#12288;&#12288;2. Born in the Great Depression<br \/>\n024&#12288;&#12288;3. The Navy, Active Duty, and Marriage<br \/>\n028&#12288;&#12288;4. Returning to Detroit and to College<br \/>\n034&#12288;&#12288;5. Exposure to Japanese Culture<br \/>\n039&#12288;&#12288;6. The Freer House and the Merrill-Palmer Institute<br \/>\n042&#12288;&#12288;7. Divorce and Plans for Japan<br \/>\n045&#12288;&#12288;8. Mr. Softi and Mr. Softi&rsquo;s Neighbors<br \/>\n055&#12288;&#12288;9. A One-Man Show and Departure for Japan<br \/>\n063&#12288;&#12288;10. Encounter with the Mingeikan<br \/>\n066&#12288;&#12288;11. Days in Bizen<br \/>\n082&#12288;&#12288;12. Days in Kurashiki<br \/>\n088&#12288;&#12288;13. Return from Japan (July 1959&ndash;Spring 1960)<br \/>\n094&#12288;&#12288;14. Tonomura&rsquo;s Trip Abroad<br \/>\n104&#12288;&#12288;15. An Exhibition in MoMA&rsquo;s Emergency Stairwell<br \/>\n116&#12288;&#12288;16. To Japan Again<br \/>\n122&#12288;&#12288;17. Byars&rsquo;s Sumi-e and the Influence of Calligraphy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":50853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[5523],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-50852","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-art","7":"author-by-author-sakagami-shinobu","8":"publisher-floating-world-editions","10":"first","11":"instock","12":"shipping-taxable","13":"purchasable","14":"product-type-simple"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>James Lee Byars - ACC Art Books US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/us\/book\/james-lee-byars-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"James Lee Byars - ACC Art Books US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Follows the author&rsquo;s 2017 book James Lee Byars: Days in Japan to illuminate a similarly crucial yet overlooked period in the artist&rsquo;s development.07&#12288;&#12288;Preface 012&#12288;&#12288;1. 4731 Brooklyn Street 015&#12288;&#12288;2. Born in the Great Depression 024&#12288;&#12288;3. The Navy, Active Duty, and Marriage 028&#12288;&#12288;4. Returning to Detroit and to College 034&#12288;&#12288;5. Exposure to Japanese Culture 039&#12288;&#12288;6. The Freer House and the Merrill-Palmer Institute 042&#12288;&#12288;7. Divorce and Plans for Japan 045&#12288;&#12288;8. Mr. Softi and Mr. Softi&rsquo;s Neighbors 055&#12288;&#12288;9. A One-Man Show and Departure for Japan 063&#12288;&#12288;10. Encounter with the Mingeikan 066&#12288;&#12288;11. Days in Bizen 082&#12288;&#12288;12. Days in Kurashiki 088&#12288;&#12288;13. Return from Japan (July 1959&ndash;Spring 1960) 094&#12288;&#12288;14. Tonomura&rsquo;s Trip Abroad 104&#12288;&#12288;15. An Exhibition in MoMA&rsquo;s Emergency Stairwell 116&#12288;&#12288;16. To Japan Again 122&#12288;&#12288;17. 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