Jess: Paste-Ups (and Assemblies). 1951-1983
Sarasota, FL: The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 1983. 1st Edition. Oblong quarto, publisher's taupe cloth, spine and upper board gilt, ecru endpapers, original illustrated dust jacket.
Catalog published in conjunction with an exhibition of the mononymous artist’s work held at Sarasota’s Ringling Museum of Art in 1984. Born as Burgess Collins in Long Beach, California, Jess trained as a chemist, ultimately becoming disillusioned with science after working with atomic energy. He studied under Clyfford Still and Edward Corbett at the California School of Fine Arts, and met his lifelong partner, the poet Robert Duncan; the pair became luminaries of the San Francisco Renaissance. Inspired by Max Ernst’s collage work, Jess produced his own "paste-ups," so called due to their scrapbook aesthetic, combining painting with cut-outs from magazines, posters, prints, and newspapers. Playful in nature, the work draws on a diversity of themes such as the occult, alchemy, mysticism, folklore, and male eroticism Illustrated with color plates of paste-ups; with an introduction by Jess’s contemporary R. B. Kitaj and an interview by curator Michael Auping; with biography and bibliography. Unclipped dust jacket with minor rubbing and edgewear, else fine. Item #9861
$75.00