James Lee Byars was known as much for his enigmatic public persona and ritual-like performances as for the objects he created. Informed by the philosophies and art of many of the world’s cultures, Byars cultivated an almost mystical aura around his artistic practice by repeatedly exploring such themes as perfection and death and using sumptuous materials like gold and crystal for his columns, spheres, and room installations. The Figure of Question is composed of gold leaf and marble. Although Byars was known to clothe himself in gold for his performances and even staged his own wake in a dazzling golden room, the artist did not explain what gold might represent in his art. Rather he allowed the material’s strong association with the decoration of temples, churches, and palaces, and its status as a precious metal to resonate on their own. In this instance, gold completely hides the solid marble mass of the sculpture, giving an otherwise immovable object a shimmering weightlessness in much the same way that gold leaf and mosaic tiles dematerialize the heavy stone interior architecture of Byzantine churches to evoke the heavens.