J. S. G. Boggs, American artist, Died at 62

  Artists

James Stephen George Boggs was born in 1955 and died in January 2017.

He was an American artist.

Boggs was best known for his hand-drawn, one-sided depictions of U.S. banknotes (known as “Boggs notes”) and his various “Boggs bills” he draws for use in his performances.

Boggs spends his “Boggs notes” only for their face value, if he draws a $100 bill, he exchanges it for $100 worth of goods.

Then, he sells any change he gets, the receipt, and sometimes the goods he purchased as his “artwork”. If an art collector wants a Boggs note, he must track it down himself.

He will tell a collector where he spent the note, but he does not sell them directly.

Boggs’ works are held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Babson College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, the Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Florida, the Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas, and the British Museum, London, England, to name but a few.

He and his work are chronicled in Boggs: A Comedy of Values, by Lawrence Weschler, published by the University of Chicago Press.

James Stephen George Boggs passed away at 62 years old.