Anonymous Works: My Biennial #1

Friday, August 14, 2009

Forrest Bess
The Greek
14 x 14"
Oil on Canvas
1953

Candler Arts said...: Thanks for introducing me to a painter I knew nothing about. I went to the Bess Web site. Is that painting yours, Joey?; August 14, 2009 at 1:08 PM
Dull Tool Dim Bulb said...: I've always been a big fan of these little paintings. thanks joey; August 14, 2009 at 1:35 PM
Joey said...: Oh jeez, I wish it were mine!

No, despite not too many people knowing about Forrest Bess, he does have a small but knowledgeable and ardent following and there was a retrospective of his work at the Whitney Museum almost 30 years ago. The essay by Barbara Haskell on the site details the impetus to a lot of the imagery of the work, motivated by a theory of androgeny that led him to a series of operations.

Not sure how much this painting would bring at auction, but I would think at least $15-20k. We get to have small web images at least :); August 14, 2009 at 1:39 PM
sroden said...: he's one of my top 5 painters of all time. i have an amazing documentary on him on vhs, if you haven't seen it you should look for it. these paintings totally kick my butt...great great great...; August 17, 2009 at 11:05 PM
Joey said...: I had no idea there was a documentary. I'm definitely going to look it up! Thanks Steve!; August 18, 2009 at 12:49 PM