BRITISH MUSEUM BOGGS OLD BAILEY NOTE EXHIBIT

 

Of the many artists who have investigated the intersection of art and value, the work of J.S.G. Boggs (1955–2017) is among the wittiest and most audacious. In the mid-1980s, while living in the UK as an up-and- coming artist, he began drawing money – faithful reproductions of current tender – that he would then try and spend. Acting transparently, he offered the receiver two options: they could have a genuine note in payment for a purchase, or they could accept a hand- drawn artwork imitating a note. If they accepted the drawing, Boggs asked for a receipt and the correct amount in change. The receiver was free to do what they wanted with their artwork, although on occasion his gallery would track down the drawing and offer to buy it back, at an inflated amount. ‘It's not as easy as it sounds', he once said, ‘it takes me ten hours to draw one of these things, and then another ten to spend it'.

The artist attempted to use his so- called ‘Boggs bills' to pay for everything, from meals in restaurants to rent and even his own solicitor when his work, inevitably, landed him in legal difficulty. In 1986 he wrote to the Bank of England asking it to grant permission for his note drawings. It refused and applied its prerogative to bring a private prosecution, leading to the artist's arrest and seizure of several works from an exhibition at Young Unknowns Gallery in Waterloo.

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
BRITISH MUSEUM HOLDS BOGGS OLD BAILEY NOTE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n44a05.html)
BRITISH MUSEUM BOGGS OLD BAILEY NOTE IMAGES (https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n49a11.html)

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