The Project
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| Jody, Greg and David at Greg Kucera Gallery, 2013 |
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| Jessica Farrell at Byrd’s home in Sidney Center, 2012 |
DAVID BYRD CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ
The David Byrd Estate and Anton Kern Gallery are pleased to present the David Byrd Catalogue Raisonné, a comprehensive online resource documenting the artist’s lifetime of work. The catalogue includes 326 oil-on-canvas paintings, 41 sculptures and assemblages, Byrd’s book Montrose V.A. 1958–88, and 974 studies directly related to these works, as well as a selection of watercolors and pastels, loose drawings, sketchbooks, and auction cards. It traces Byrd’s life from his tumultuous childhood in Springfield, Illinois, through his formative years in New York City studying with Amédée Ozenfant, to his 30-year career as an orderly, during which he produced hundreds of small drawings of the patients he cared for while working at Montrose VA. The catalogue also documents his later years living alone in upstate New York, where he participated in small-town auctions and bottle shows and made regular trips to laundromats, gas stations, grocery stores, and nearby landscapes featuring bridges, houses, barns, and hills.
The catalogue incorporates key archival materials, including photographs of Byrd’s hand-built home and studio in the Catskill Mountains, selected correspondence with family, art publishers, critics, and museums, and a scrapbook.
Since meeting David Byrd in 2012, Jody Isaacson and Jessica Farrell have worked to preserve his artistic legacy. Following Byrd’s death in 2013, the David Byrd Estate was established, and in 2015 development of the David Byrd Catalogue Raisonné was underway. They continue to organize exhibitions, facilitate dialogue, and contextualize Byrd’s work to expand public engagement. In 2019, the Estate announced a partnership with Anton Kern Gallery in New York City.