J.S.G BOGGS
BROWSE ARTISTS1955 – 2017
American
James Stephen George Boggs, a.k.a. J.S.G. Boggs, was an American artist best known for his hand-drawn depictions of banknotes. Boggs began drawing currency in 1984 when a Chicago server accepted a drawing of a one-dollar bill in payment for his restaurant tab, which became known as Boggs notes. Boggs notes were both art objects and a performance: Boggs would exchange the notes for goods based on the face value of the created note. If the exchange was a success, he sold any change he received, the receipt, and sometimes the goods he purchased as his “artwork” to art dealers and collectors. The buyer would often find the person in possession of the Boggs Note to purchase it, typically at a higher value, with one Boggs note reportedly being resold for $420,000.
The design of his Boggs notes featured imagery influenced by contemporary U.S. currency with modified text and images that resembled actual currency but, upon closer inspection, were not identical replicas as seen in his piece, $1 Blue. This close resemblance led to legal problems for Boggs, who was charged with counterfeiting in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, with the Secret Service raiding his home three times, confiscating 1,300 artworks that were never returned. He was eventually cleared of all charges in all countries, and Australia paid the artist approximately $20,000 in damages. Boggs was later deemed the Patron Saint of Cryptocurrency by Artnet due to his pre-Bitcoin philosophical questions about the value of physical currency.
Boggs was born Stephen Litzner on January 16, 1955, in Woodbury, New Jersey, and later changed his name. He attended Brandon High School in Brandon, Florida, but was expelled in his junior year for inciting a riot, which he denied. He later took courses in accounting at Miami University in OH, Columbia University. In the 1970s, he moved to London to pursue art, where he enrolled in courses at the Camden Art Center. Boggs continued to make art until his death in 2017.
