Forrest Bess

Acquired directly from the artist by the estate of the above
By descent to the present owner

New York, Hirschl & Adler Modern Gallery; Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Forrest Bess, May - October 1988
Cologne, Museum Ludwig, Forrest Bess, 1911-1977: Here is a Sign, January - March 1989

Canvas is wax lined and remains in the work's original frame, which was fabricated by the artist. Stretcher bar marks are visible along all four sides of the piece roughly 1.5 in. from the edges. There is extensive craquelure spanning the surface of the piece that has been addressed by a varnish which is visible throughout. The surface of the work retains a rich and textured impasto and bright pigment saturation. There is some minor rubbing to the extreme edges of the canvas. Under Ultraviolet light there is no inpainting is apparent. Framed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This magnificent early self-portrait offers a unique glimpse into the artistic career and mind of the fascinating and little understood visionary painter, Forrest Bess. After having returned from a trip to Mexico in 1934, Bess set up a small studio in Bay City, Texas, where he was to spend the majority of his life living in solitude, developing his unique painterly style and fishing for sustenance. It is here where he started painting landscapes, portraits and animals. These paintings were rendered in a Post-Impressionist style characterized by the use of bright colors, distinctive brush strokes, thick application of paint and sharp outlined edges. A self-taught painter, Bess’s early influences and stylistic choices can be traced to artists such as Maurice Vlaminck, Edvard Munch and Vincent van Gogh; artists that Bess admired deeply and felt a kinship toward. Despite his self-imposed isolation and a lack of affiliation to his contemporaries, Bess‘s work shares many affinities with the Abstract Expressionist artists of his time. The gestural quality of the paint and palpable tension between physicality and psychic expression firmly ground his work with the continuum of Modernism. However, Bess’s work is far more intimate in both scale and content as he worked to depict raw intuitive expressions derived from his inner-being.

The connection between Bess and van Gogh is profoundly evident in this self-portrait. Both artists are known to have suffered from mental illness and their various psychological states can be seen manifested in their paintings. Van Gogh was a master of self-portraiture, having created over forty paintings of himself over the course of his lifetime. This self-portrait of Bess is one of the few known representations of himself and offers a rare glimpse into the mind of the artist as he sees himself. Serene and comfortable, smoking a pipe and reading a book in his home, Bess paints himself candidly, yet omits any evidence of the visions and obsessions that crowded his mind.

This unique painting was created at a turning point in Bess’s artistic career; later that year he began to focus solely on his visionary paintings, abandoning representation and recreations of the world around him. Bess’s fascination with the power of visions and symbols led him to an obsessive investigation into the possibility of eternal life.  His belief in the unity of female and male character and subsequent self-mutilation were all failed efforts in his fervent search for immortality. Yet he manages to live on through this painting and through the age old tradition and belief of the painted portrait as a vehicle of immortality, thus granting him the eternal life he sought so desperately to attain.