Forrest Bess

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Author: Moritz Wesseler (ed.)One of the strangest yet most captivating outsider artists that the United States has ever produced, Forrest Bess influenced contemporary names such as Richard Hawkins and James Benning. As a young painter, Bess enlisted in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II and designed camouflage patterns. While working full-time as a commercial fisherman, Bess also made compact, biomorphic abstractions relaying the colourful visions of his lucid dreams. He combined art with an intense and even dangerous exploration of mythology, psychology and sexology – performing an illicit operation on his own sexual organs that ultimately led to his creative and physical decline. He suffered a mental breakdown and following his discharge from the army lived in isolation in Texas. This bilingual English/German exhibition catalogue includes fascinating letters and ephemera alongside installation shots, together with tributes by artist devotees Tomma Abts and Amy Sillman.ISBN 9783753306827. Walther König, Köln/Fridericianum, Kassel. hb. 376 pages. 116 colour, 4 b/w ills. 28 x 20 cm.available to order Show more