FORREST BESS
With texts by Tomma Abts, Dieter Schwarz, Amy Sillman, and Moritz Wesseler
In reference to the exhibition FORREST BESS, presented by the Fridericianum in Kassel in 2020, a comprehensive monograph on the artist's life and work has now been published under the same title. With texts by Tomma Abts, Dieter Schwarz, Amy Sillman, and Moritz Wesseler, the carefully compiled book offers the opportunity to take a closer look at one of the most extraordinary figures in post-war American art.
From the second half of the 1940s, Bess, who described himself as a painter and fisherman, lived in relative isolation at the Gulf of Mexico, near the Texan town of Bay City. There, he began to successively create small abstract paintings that reflect his visionary experiences between wakefulness and sleep. He combined his art with an intense exploration of mythology, psychology, and sexology. Believing that immortality could be achieved through the union of the masculine and feminine, he underwent medical procedures. His unconventional works received posthumous recognition in international exhibitions and influenced many contemporary artists such as James Benning, Leidy Churchman, Robert Gober, Richard Hawkins, or Henrik Olesen.
FORREST BESS
Publication ed. by Moritz Wesseler, Kassel 2025
376 pages, 20 × 28 cm, 116 color illustrations, texts in German and English, hardback
Publisher: Walther und Franz König, Cologne
ISBN: 978-3-7533-0682-7
38 Euro plus shipping
The publication is available on the Fridericianum website.
