Acknowledgements
First and foremost, we’d like to thank David Byrd, who, in the short time we knew him, trusted us and opened himself up to us in the final chapter of his life. In turn, as artists ourselves, we have been greatly altered, both personally and professionally. David taught us so much—not just about art and preserving an artist’s legacy, but more importantly about the many facets of the human condition. We are forever changed and forever grateful.
We are so thankful to all the people who have carried the “Byrd” torch through the years, many of whom continue to support his legacy today. There have been countless small steps of progress along the way, and much like the catalogue raisonné itself, all these steps have linked together and propelled Byrd’s legacy upward and onward. We sincerely appreciate the important contributions that have helped bring David’s profound body of work to the world. As David’s legacy continues to grow, so will our appreciation for friends who offer their time and talent to the project.
In early 2015, we met with Jason Andrew from Artist Estate Studio in New York City. He had recently completed the catalogue raisonné for Jack Tworkov. He advised us to contact panOpticon and begin the process of creating the David Byrd Catalogue Raisonné. Roger and Susannah Shepherd’s proficiency and expertise have ultimately made this catalogue raisonné and website project possible, and we are continually grateful for their efforts. Susannah used her creativity to turn a catalogue raisonné, essentially a compendium of pictures and facts, into an extremely attractive, handsomely designed online book, in its own way a work of art.
Andrea Hull, a professional videographer, has been invaluable to the David Byrd Estate. She filmed hours of footage of David at his exhibition in Sidney Center as well as in his home. She traveled to Seattle and captured David’s opening at Greg Kucera Gallery as well as his artist talk a few days later. The year after David’s death, Andrea filmed all those we could find who knew him. She interviewed Matthew Higgs at White Columns and Anton Kern at his gallery during David’s concurrent exhibitions. She also filmed a conversation between Craig Taylor, Anton Kern, and Kristen Smoragiewicz about David’s book, Montrose VA 1958-88. The estate has over 40 hours of never-before-seen footage. A film awaits.
We would also like to thank the following photographers for their dedication to the project: Tom Gorman for his careful, thorough documentation of David’s home, property, paintings, and hundreds and hundreds of drawings, including all 19 sketchbooks; Walter Putrycz for his beautiful photographs of the Martin Mullen show as well as David’s home and outbuildings; Petronella Ytsma for documenting the exhibition War Is Always With Us as well as IN RESPONSE by the Ananya Dance Theatre; James Shanks for his photography of the Ten Stops exhibition series, which entailed documenting 10 separate exhibitions around New York State; and Michael Sellitti for transferring video footage and providing technical assistance for performances based on David’s writings and life. Margaret Buzura contributed an amazing 360-degree tour of David’s home. A selection of these videos and photographs can be seen on the David Byrd Estate website. Mary Carlson has given us her expertise in designing and managing the website over the last decade. David was unknown, but the website allowed us to share his work and story around the globe.
The David Byrd Catalogue Raisonné includes essays by Robert Cozzolino, Jennifer Samet, Merlin James, Rebecca DiGiovanna, Frédéric Paul and Riva Lehrer. We read the essays aloud as they arrived. Your words pierced our hearts. They brought us to tears. They deepened our understanding. You left us with questions, encouraging us to continue looking.
David was fortunate to be able to experience two solo exhibitions before he died. His first exhibition took place at the former Sidney Center schoolhouse, not far from his home. At the opening, the community gathered around their newly found elderly hometown artist, who, to their surprise, had been living in their midst for years. We are thankful to the members of Greater Maywood Rural Community Services and Maywood Arts, who provided the venue for this very special opportunity. Thank you, Peg Halpin, Judy Cordes, and Barbara Gregson, Jerry Farrell, Bruce Goddard, and Naomi Fisch. It was thrilling working with all of you. David’s second show was at Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle. In early 2013, Greg Kucera and Larry Yocum traveled to the Catskill Mountains to visit David at his home as well as select artwork for his first professional gallery show. David Byrd Introduction: A Life of Observation was Kucera’s largest gallery show by a single artist in his 30-year career. David’s gallery talk was one of the most well attended, second in number of attendees only to John Waters. The exhibition showcased over 120 works. Zoë Samels interviewed David in his home and wrote an insightful, illuminating essay about David and his work. How wonderful for David to have had what was truly a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition! These friends were the lucky ones as well because they had the opportunity to meet and be with David in his home.
Many galleries and institutions have been essential for exhibiting and promoting David’s work. One of the first was the Martin Mullen Gallery at SUNY Oneonta in 2013. We took David to see the space and meet director Tim Sheesley before David’s trip to Seattle. David was hoping for an opportunity to exhibit there. He liked the gallery space. However, he was particularly interested in the fact that no commission would be taken by the gallery if anything should sell. The gallery layout and architecture were embedded in David’s brain. While at the Oxford Veteran’s Home, he discussed many possibilities for how his work could be arranged. Just days before David died, he continued to plan the exhibition. Sadly, he did not survive to see the actual show. However, knowing that this exhibition lay on the horizon meant the world to David. He was able to realize that his legacy was just beginning. Again, we want to share our appreciation with Tim Sheesley for the opportunity and the brochure extraordinaire he created for the show!
David’s health declined rapidly after the Seattle show. We truly appreciate all the kindness he received at the VA hospital in Albany, The Plains in Oneonta, and the VA hospital in Oxford during his last days. We are very grateful to Colleen McKinney, Tom Gorman, Steve Hay, and Carol Isaacson for providing a network of care during David’s final weeks.
In 2017, we organized David Byrd: Ten Stops, a series of ten separate exhibitions that retraced by gallery location the places that David had lived after leaving Springfield, Ill. Each “stop” in the series highlighted work that was specific to that location. It truly was an odyssey of exhibitions from Brooklyn to Peekskill and West Point, continuing north to Delhi, Franklin, and Sidney Center, NY, on to Cooperstown, with a final stop in Seattle, WA, where David had his first and last gallery exhibition. It also included a retrospective at the home and studio Byrd designed and built in the Catskills. In order to take a road trip, we needed a map, and boy did Mary McDonnell, a painter and designer, ever create an astoundingly beautiful one! If you don’t have one, we’d be happy to send you one. We tip our hats to Jack Siman, Westpoint Museum, Larry Greenberg and Paul D’Agostino, Tim Duerden, Smithy Gallery, Sydney Waller, Alicia Morgan, and again to Greg Kucera. Also, we are sincerely grateful to all the wonderful people, in a variety of communities, that we met along the way who took such an interest in David. We refer to all these new friends as the David Byrd Fan Club. Thank you, one and all!
There was a network of events that led to David’s entry into New York City. We are grateful to everyone who has carried the “torch” on this leg of the legacy journey. We would like to thank Greg Kucera, who has been instrumental since the beginning, for providing David’s first NYC opportunity at the ADAA Armory show, where Sean Horton saw the work. Sean organized a two-person exhibition, The Doctors and the Patients, at Zieher, Smith, and Horton in Chelsea. This exhibition introduced David to a larger audience, including Anton Kern and Matthew Higgs.
David had two exceptional shows in Philadelphia at Fleisher Ollmann Gallery under the stellar direction of Alex Baker. Alex went the extra mile. He traveled to Sidney Center, NY, to experience David’s hand-built home and environs, as well as curate the show from the estate’s storage loft. During this nascent stage of expanding David’s legacy, the following galleries and curators have played a pivotal role: Matthew Higgs for Branden Duggan at Karma, NY; Sibylle Rochat for Balice, Hertling, Paris; Matt Bollinger for 1969, NYC; Jack Eisenberg for Matthew Brown, LA; Ingrid Lundgren and George Newell, Winter Street Gallery, Martha’s Vineyard; and Merlin James, 42 Carleton Place, Glasgow. Merci beaucoup.
In 2019, we received long-awaited good news. Two calls came in from New York City, from locations 55 blocks apart. Matthew Higgs, the director of White Columns, rang to finalize David’s debut solo show in Manhattan. We had been in communication for years about the opportunity, and it was finally going to happen. January 17, 2019. In November 2019, we received the second call from Kristen Smoragiewicz, a director with Anton Kern Gallery. She had been to our talk in Philadelphia the previous day and called, wanting to help the estate promote David’s book and work. Anton wanted to give David Byrd an exhibition opening on February 7. David Byrd was to have two exhibitions happening at the same time in the same city. We were “over the moon.”
Anton Kern, Kristen Smoragiewicz, and Matthew Higgs have given so much. They have designed and installed noteworthy exhibitions of Byrd’s work, been interviewed on tape, led gallery talks, published David Byrd’s book Montrose VA 1958-88, created opportunities for exhibitions in Europe and at home, and MORE.
Kristen Smoragiewicz has not only been a trusted promoter and supporter; she has been a steadfast and dependable partner. She listens. She is a good friend, and we value the many opportunities she negotiated and continues to create. Thank you, Anton. Kristen and Matthew.
There have been five exhibitions that included programming to expand upon David’s defining body of work about the patients at the VA Hospital in Montrose, NY. In 2015, Hope & Healing: Perspectives on Mental Illness was an all-day community mental health conference held in conjunction with the exhibition, David Byrd: Voices, Paintings from Montrose VA Hospital in Roxbury, NY. We would like to sincerely thank all the organizers, partners, and participants. Thank you, Maggie Cullen and Jenny Rosenzweig, who provided the opportunity to have an exhibition as well as a conference. Maggie also taped an informative interview live on the local radio station. We would like to recognize and thank Drue Brenner, coordinator at NY Connects, who was able to secure funding for the event, and Rina Riba of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Otsego & Delaware Counties. We are grateful to all our speakers: Jason Paden, keynote speaker and peer advocate; Steffanie Poplock, moderator; Kate Hewlett; Tammy Burrows; Kim Ilowit; Walt Keller; Karen "Kit" Marshfield; Shari Stallone; and musician Mary Shepard. A second Hope and Healing event took place in June in Guilford, NY. We are grateful to the event coordinator, Sandy DuMond, for her efforts.
Thank you, Carol Chase, at St. Catherine University in St. Paul for the curation of War Is Always With Us and for coordinating IN RESPONSE with the Ananya Dance Theatre. We were so pleased to have all the amazing dancers share their talents, responding to David’s work. The exhibition traveled to Edgewood College in Madison, WI, where David Wells coordinated the symposium, Veterans Art & Mental Health. We are grateful to all the veterans who spoke and graciously shared their personal stories, including keynote speaker, photographer and veteran Walter Putrycz, and speakers Shawn Ganther & Yvette Pino from The Veteran Print Project.
We are very grateful to SUNY Oneonta, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) chapters of Otsego & Delaware Counties, the student-run NAMI on-campus members, and all the advocates and artists that participated in the performance, VOICES: Exploring the Life & Art of David Byrd. We truly appreciate you all, friends! Colleen Blacklock, dancer/choreographer; Michael Suchorsky, musician; Naomi Fisch; Leon Beach; John Exter; Steve Hay; Walter Putrycz; Michael Sellitti, technician; Ginnah Howard; Stephanie Poplock; Jennie Williams; Griem Tyteana; and Laura Dellavecchia. A very special thanks to videographer Jessica Vecchione for documenting the event.
Tristan Scremin, Rayshell Chamber, and all the members of Painted Brain organized the David Byrd Art Experience, which was held in conjunction with the Matthew Brown Gallery exhibition in Los Angeles in early 2024. The mental health event combined poetry, art, and a gallery talk about peer culture and its connection to David Byrd’s art. Tristan wrote a powerful, heartfelt personal essay about his experiences while institutionalized in Patton State Hospital and in various forensic mental health systems, hospitals, halfway houses, and board and care homes. Thank you so much, Tristan, for sharing your important story.
Last, but by no means least, an enormous debt of gratitude is owed to our families. They have put up with our long hours in the office and in the field, our frequent and sometimes extended research, and our celebration trips. Jerry Farrell and Steve Hay have been partners, supporting our efforts from the beginning. Our children Ian and Alannah Farrell, Gib Jenkins, and Leah Hay have all shown an interest in following the project through its’ many twists and turns. It was wonderful to share the latest opportunity and/or discovery as the project continued. Turner Jenkins, Evan Putrycz, and Steve Hay worked diligently to clean up David Byrd’s property and sheds, as well as sort, wrap, and move many of the artworks to our barn for safekeeping. Steve Hay and Ian Farrell contributed many hours to input records into the catalog. Thank you, ziele sol, for collaborating with us to transcribe and edit David’s letters and book. Above and beyond these things, it boils down to this: ALL the hours and hours of hours for years and years and years of discussion about the ups and downs of this colossal project. We appreciate their ears, eyes, arms, legs, and mouth. Thank you all.
Jessica Farrell and Jody Isaacson
June 29, 2024
Sidney Center, NY
