The Discovery of a Cache of Previously Unknown Forrest Bess Paintings
This is not an original post—I saw an article about the discovery and exhibition of several previously unknown Forrest Bess paintings on Hyperallergic. The Hyperallergic piece is called “Recently Discovered Forrest Bess Paintings” and was written by the great John Yau.
This is a view of the “West Barn” at the Long Island Gallery called The Ranch that is hosting the exhibit, called “Forrest Bess: I Can Close My Eyes in a Dark Room”. Bess’s paintings were so small that they get a little lost in such a big, white room.
The story, as Yau relates it, is that there are estimated to be about 150 Bess paintings total, many of which have not been discovered. Bess gave many paintings to a friend of his named Harry Burkhart. Burkhardt’s collection was subsequently given to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center here in Houston and auctioned off by Christies. But Burkhardt apparently regifted some of his paintings to someone who worked for him (Yau doesn’t specify how this transaction took place—I am hoping it was all on the up-and-up). These pieces came to the attention of Dallas gallerist (and Forrest Bess expert) Kirk Hopper.
Hopper arranged for the Long Island exhibit. Yau points out that many of the works are damaged—they had been stored in a shed on the property of Burkhardt’s ranch. Yau also points out that he doesn’t recognize the symbols on the paintings. Anyone who has studied Bess’s works know he developed a vocabulary of symbols that he would employ often in his paintings.
Now these two facts could call into question the authenticity of the pieces, and I think Bess would be pretty easy for a talented forger to fake. That said, without having seen any of these paintings in person, they look like Forrest Bess paintings to me. The brushtrokes have Bess’s handwriting, in my eyes. The handmade frames look very much like the frames Bess created.
Long time readers know I’ve long been intrigued by Bess. I’ve written about the artist on several occasions, and undertook a somewhat farcical expedition to find the remains of Bess’s bait shack out on Matagorda Bay. I eventually took all the writing I had about Bess and published a risograph zine titled Finding Forrest Bess (which can be purchased from my online store if you are interested).
All of the images for this article are from The Ranch’s website, and the paintings are all untitled and undated.
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