Barry Le Va, Whose Floor-Bound Art Defied Boundaries, Dies at 79 Extolling horizontality, he made sculptures from felt, flour, glass sheets and even meat cleavers. Elsewhere, in a performance piece, his body was a sprinting projectile. Barry Le Va in 1972 installing a sculpture at Documenta, the contemporary art show in Germany. He made sculptures only for public display, never in his studio.Credit...Estate of Barry Le Va, courtesy David Nolan Gallery Published Feb. 22, 2021Updated Feb. 27, 2021 Barry Le Va, a sculptor who never bowed to the conventions of his medium, opting instead for temporary arrangements of ephemeral materials like felt and flour spread across the floor and, more flamboyantly, for works made by hurling meat cleavers, bricks and even his own body at walls, died on Jan. 24 in hospice care in the Bronx. He was 79.