J. S. G. Boggs
Encyclopedia
J. S. G. Boggs was an American art
ist, 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. He spends his "Boggs notes" only for their face value
. If he draws a $100 bill, he exchanges it for $100 worth of goods. He then 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. Boggs will tell a collector where he spent the note, but he does not sell them directly. His works are held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago
. the MOMA
in NYC, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Babson College
, Wellesley, MA, the Norton Museum of Art
, West Palm Beach, FL, the Tampa Museum of Art
, Tampa, FL, the Spencer Museum of Art
, Lawrence, KS, and The British Museum, London, England, to name but a few. Boggs and his work are chronicled in BOGGS - A Comedy of Values, by Lawrence Weschler
, published by University of Chicago Press
.
, but the authorities often view them with suspicion. Boggs aims to have his audience question and investigate just what it is that makes "money" valuable in the first place. He steadfastly denies that he is a counterfeiter or forger, maintaining that a good-faith transaction between informed parties is certainly not fraud, even if the item transacted happens to resemble negotiable currency.
Recently, Boggs has moved on beyond his hand-drawn works and embraced digital technology, creating his latest works on the computer
. These works resemble paper money
in fundamental ways but add subtle twists. One of his better-known works is a series of bills done for the Florida United Numismatists' annual convention. Denominations from $1 to $50 (and perhaps higher) feature designs taken from the reverse sides of contemporary U.S. currency, modified slightly through the changing of captions (notably, "The United States of America" is changed to "Florida United Numismatists" and the denomination wording is occasionally replaced by the acronym "FUN") and visual details (the mirroring of Monticello
on the $2, the Supreme Court building
, as opposed to the U.S. Treasury, on the $10 and an alternate angle for the White House
on the $20). They were printed in bright orange on one side and featured Boggs's autograph and thumbprint on the other. The total run was several hundred and they command a modest premium but not as much as his older, hand-drawn works.
Other money art that he has designed include the mural "All the World's a Stage", roughly based on a Bank of England
Series D 20-pound note and featuring Shakespearean themes, as well as banknote-sized creations that depict Boggs's ideas as to what U.S. currency should look like. A $100 featuring Harriet Tubman
is one known example.
in 1986, but was acquitted. He was arrested for a second time in Australia
in 1989, but also acquitted. Since 1990 some of his work and personal effects have been confiscated by the United States Secret Service Counterfeiting Division although no legal case has been brought against him.
The reason he avoids criminal liability for counterfeiting is that he does not claim his artworks are money; rather he sells his notes.
Unrelated to counterfeiting charges, according to a profile article in LAS Magazine
, "in September of 2006 Boggs was arrested in Florida and charged with possession of methamphetamines, possession of drug paraphernalia and carrying a concealed weapon" and was arrested on identical charges, "plus a warrant for failing to appear in court," a few months later.
Additional contemporary "money artists" include Stephen Barnwell (ANTARCTICA Dream-Dollars), Franck Medina (State of Kamberra), Cedric Mnich (Gordon Gekko's) and SilentBill (Dimensions of Money, Extra Value Money, Hyperinflation AKA Zimbadboy).
American Art
American Art is the debut album of the band Weatherbox. It was released on May 8, 2007 on Doghouse Records. The album received critical acclaim from several sources including underground music distribution company Smartpunk, who lauded the band's style:...
ist, best known for his hand-drawn, one-sided depictions of U.S. banknotes
Federal Reserve Note
A Federal Reserve Note is a type of banknote used in the United States of America. Federal Reserve Notes are printed by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing on paper made by Crane & Co. of Dalton, Massachusetts. They are the only type of U.S...
(known as "Boggs notes") and his various "Boggs bills" he draws for use in his performances. He spends his "Boggs notes" only for their face value
Face value
The Face value is the value of a coin, stamp or paper money, as printed on the coin, stamp or bill itself by the minting authority. While the face value usually refers to the true value of the coin, stamp or bill in question it can sometimes be largely symbolic, as is often the case with bullion...
. If he draws a $100 bill, he exchanges it for $100 worth of goods. He then 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. Boggs will tell a collector where he spent the note, but he does not sell them directly. His works are held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
. the MOMA
Moma
Moma may refer to:* Moma , an owlet moth genus* Moma Airport, a Russian public airport* Moma District, Nampula, Mozambique* Moma River, a right tributary of the Indigirka River* Google Moma, the Google corporate intranet...
in NYC, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Babson College
Babson College
Babson College is a private business school located in Wellesley, Massachusetts near Boston.- History :Babson College was founded by Roger Babson on September 3, 1919, as the Babson Institute. It was renamed "Babson College" in 1969...
, Wellesley, MA, the Norton Museum of Art
Norton Museum of Art
The Norton Museum of Art is an art museum located in West Palm Beach, Florida. Its collection includes over 5,000 works, with a concentration in European, American, and Chinese art as well as in contemporary art and photography.-History:...
, West Palm Beach, FL, the Tampa Museum of Art
Tampa Museum of Art
The Tampa Museum of Art is located in Downtown Tampa, Florida. The museum exhibits 20th-century fine art, as well as Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities. It opened in 1979 on the banks of Hillsborough River.- Museum History :...
, Tampa, FL, the Spencer Museum of Art
Spencer Museum of Art
The Spencer Museum of Art, or SMA, is an art museum on the campus of University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. While admission is free, donations are accepted. Also located inside the Spencer Museum of Art are the Kress Foundation Department of Art History, and the Murphy Library of Art &...
, Lawrence, KS, and The British Museum, London, England, to name but a few. Boggs and his work are chronicled in BOGGS - A Comedy of Values, by Lawrence Weschler
Lawrence Weschler
Lawrence Weschler is an author of works of creative nonfiction.A graduate of Cowell College of the University of California, Santa Cruz , Weschler was for over twenty years a staff writer at The New Yorker, where his work shuttled between political tragedies and cultural comedies...
, published by University of Chicago Press
University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press is the largest university press in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including The Chicago Manual of Style, dozens of academic journals, including Critical Inquiry, and a wide array of...
.
Career
Boggs (Steve Litzner) was born in Woodbury, New Jersey, U.S.A., in 1955. Any person who gets a Boggs note can usually sell it for much more than its face value: a $10 Boggs note may be worth more than $1000. Any person who knows about Boggs is likely to accept a Boggs note; for this reason, Boggs prefers to spend his art with people who are unfamiliar with his work. He likes people to make a conscious choice to accept art instead of money, and their knowing how much money his art is actually worth spoils it. He views these "transactions" as a type of performance artPerformance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
, but the authorities often view them with suspicion. Boggs aims to have his audience question and investigate just what it is that makes "money" valuable in the first place. He steadfastly denies that he is a counterfeiter or forger, maintaining that a good-faith transaction between informed parties is certainly not fraud, even if the item transacted happens to resemble negotiable currency.
Recently, Boggs has moved on beyond his hand-drawn works and embraced digital technology, creating his latest works on the computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
. These works resemble paper money
Paper Money
Paper Money is the second album by the band Montrose. It was released in 1974 and was the band's last album to feature Sammy Hagar as lead vocalist.-History:...
in fundamental ways but add subtle twists. One of his better-known works is a series of bills done for the Florida United Numismatists' annual convention. Denominations from $1 to $50 (and perhaps higher) feature designs taken from the reverse sides of contemporary U.S. currency, modified slightly through the changing of captions (notably, "The United States of America" is changed to "Florida United Numismatists" and the denomination wording is occasionally replaced by the acronym "FUN") and visual details (the mirroring of Monticello
Monticello
Monticello is a National Historic Landmark just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was the estate of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia; it is...
on the $2, the Supreme Court building
United States Supreme Court building
The Supreme Court Building is the seat of the Supreme Court of the United States. It is situated in Washington, D.C. at 1 First Street, NE, on the block immediately east of the United States Capitol. The building is under the jurisdiction of the Architect of the Capitol. On May 4, 1987, the Supreme...
, as opposed to the U.S. Treasury, on the $10 and an alternate angle for the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
on the $20). They were printed in bright orange on one side and featured Boggs's autograph and thumbprint on the other. The total run was several hundred and they command a modest premium but not as much as his older, hand-drawn works.
Other money art that he has designed include the mural "All the World's a Stage", roughly based on a Bank of England
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...
Series D 20-pound note and featuring Shakespearean themes, as well as banknote-sized creations that depict Boggs's ideas as to what U.S. currency should look like. A $100 featuring Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Harriet Ross; (1820 – 1913) was an African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the American Civil War. After escaping from slavery, into which she was born, she made thirteen missions to rescue more than 70 slaves...
is one known example.
Arrests
Boggs was first arrested for counterfeiting in EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in 1986, but was acquitted. He was arrested for a second time in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1989, but also acquitted. Since 1990 some of his work and personal effects have been confiscated by the United States Secret Service Counterfeiting Division although no legal case has been brought against him.
The reason he avoids criminal liability for counterfeiting is that he does not claim his artworks are money; rather he sells his notes.
Unrelated to counterfeiting charges, according to a profile article in LAS Magazine
LAS Magazine
LAS Magazine, also known as Lost At Sea or LostAtSea.net, is a daily online magazine founded in 1998 by Eric J Herboth. An online social group for the magazine list it in the "Entertainment & Arts - Online Media" category with a description of "Art. Bike. Music. Media. Literature. Photography....
, "in September of 2006 Boggs was arrested in Florida and charged with possession of methamphetamines, possession of drug paraphernalia and carrying a concealed weapon" and was arrested on identical charges, "plus a warrant for failing to appear in court," a few months later.
See also
Other money artists include- William HarnettWilliam HarnettWilliam Michael Harnett was an Irish-American painter known for his trompe l'oeil still lifes of ordinary objects.-Early life:...
- John F. PetoJohn F. PetoJohn Frederick Peto was an American trompe l'oeil painter who was long forgotten until his paintings were rediscovered along with those of fellow trompe l'oeil artist William Harnett....
- Tim PrusmackTim PrusmackTim Prusmack was an American artist. He specialized in pen-and-ink drawings of U.S. currency.-Methods:As a young child Tim Prusmack started coin collecting and his skill in art and love of history fused perfectly in his "money art". Before starting a piece of money art, Prusmack would study the...
- John HaberleJohn HaberleJohn Haberle was a 19th-century American painter in the trompe l'oeil style. His still lifes of ordinary objects are painted in such a way that the painting can be mistaken for the objects themselves. He is considered one of the three major figures—together with William Harnett and John F...
, who made trompe l'oeilTrompe l'oeilTrompe-l'œil, which can also be spelled without the hyphen in English as trompe l'oeil, is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions.-History in painting:Although the phrase has its origin in...
paintings of U.S. currency in the 1880s - Otis KayeOtis KayeOtis Kaye was an American artist during the early 20th century. He is noted especially for trompe l'oeil paintings of U.S. currency.-Life and work:...
, who made both paintings similar to Harnett, and also actual-size pen-and-ink drawings from the 1920s to the 1950s - Emanuel NingerEmanuel NingerEmanuel Ninger , known as "Jim the Penman", was a counterfeiter in the late 1880s.-Biography:Ninger and his wife, Adelaide, arrived in 1882 from Germany to live in Hoboken, New Jersey. He worked as a sign painter and then bought a farm in Westfield, New Jersey. He told his neighbors that he was...
(Jim the Penman), who drew counterfeit notes, with the intent to defraud, by hand in the 1880s
Additional contemporary "money artists" include Stephen Barnwell (ANTARCTICA Dream-Dollars), Franck Medina (State of Kamberra), Cedric Mnich (Gordon Gekko's) and SilentBill (Dimensions of Money, Extra Value Money, Hyperinflation AKA Zimbadboy).