Label TextBest known for his playful and profound paper collages, San Francisco Beat artist Jess shows ties to Funk art and assemblage in this work, which was a found and manipulated object, the theme of his “Salvages” series. The artist stated, “I saw on the wall… this tiny nameless forest landscape, pleasant, unassuming, bland. Only the central tree caught me up.” Reworked over nine years, the original flat-surfaced painting was covered with thick, pastel impasto and disconnected figures and scenes. The central tree, which initially intrigued the artist, remains the only original element of the found painting. Typical of Jess’s work, A Panic… has no linear narrative, but exists as a constructed private world of delicate beauty and quiet absurdity. The work’s title derives from an essay by the Beat poet Robert Duncan, Jess’s lifelong companion. An excerpt from the essay, along with eleven found photographic images that make up the source material for the figures in the painting, form a collage on the back of the painting and act as a blueprint for the front painting.
Exhibition History"Jess; A Grand Collage, 1951-1993," Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, Sept. 11 - Oct. 31, 1993, (circulated to: Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, Dec. 23, 1993 - Jan. 30, 1994, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, Feb. 28- April 28, 1994, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, June 1 - Aug. 30, 1994, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, Sept. 20 - Dec. 15, 1994)
"Jess: The Romantic Paintings," The Arts Club of Chicago, Feb. 25 - Apr.4, 1981
"Translations, Salvages, Paste-Ups by Jess," Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, (circulated to: University Art Museum, Berkely, June 7 - July 24, 1977; Des Moines Art center, Oct. 26 - Dec. 4, 1977; Odyssia Gallery, N.Y. "Paste Up and Salvages by Jess," Nov. 6, 1978 - Jan. 6, 1979), cat. no. 17
"Seventieth American Exhibition," Art Institute of Chicago, IL, June 24 - Aug. 20, 1972
Published References"Jess: A Grand Collage," Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York, 1993, exh. cat. color ill. pl. 77, p.215
DMAC Bulletin, Sept./Oct., 1977, ill.
DES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, Des Moines Art Center, 1985, ref. p.89, b/w ill. pl.64, p.88
THE NATHAN EMORY COFFIN COLLECTION, a portfolio of fifty selections from the collection, published by the Des Moines Art Center to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Nathan Emory Coffin, 1981, b/w ill.
AN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. & color detail p.146, color ill. p.147
"Seventieth American Exhibition," Art Institute of Chicago, IL, 1972, exh. cat. no.24, ill. p.23
"Jess: To and From the Printed Page", Independent Curators International, New York, 2007, fig. 5, color ill. pg. 17
Exhibition History"Jess; A Grand Collage, 1951-1993," Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, Sept. 11 - Oct. 31, 1993, (circulated to: Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, Dec. 23, 1993 - Jan. 30, 1994, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, Feb. 28- April 28, 1994, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, June 1 - Aug. 30, 1994, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, Sept. 20 - Dec. 15, 1994)
"Jess: The Romantic Paintings," The Arts Club of Chicago, Feb. 25 - Apr.4, 1981
"Translations, Salvages, Paste-Ups by Jess," Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, (circulated to: University Art Museum, Berkely, June 7 - July 24, 1977; Des Moines Art center, Oct. 26 - Dec. 4, 1977; Odyssia Gallery, N.Y. "Paste Up and Salvages by Jess," Nov. 6, 1978 - Jan. 6, 1979), cat. no. 17
"Seventieth American Exhibition," Art Institute of Chicago, IL, June 24 - Aug. 20, 1972
Published References"Jess: A Grand Collage," Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York, 1993, exh. cat. color ill. pl. 77, p.215
DMAC Bulletin, Sept./Oct., 1977, ill.
DES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, Des Moines Art Center, 1985, ref. p.89, b/w ill. pl.64, p.88
THE NATHAN EMORY COFFIN COLLECTION, a portfolio of fifty selections from the collection, published by the Des Moines Art Center to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Nathan Emory Coffin, 1981, b/w ill.
AN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. & color detail p.146, color ill. p.147
"Seventieth American Exhibition," Art Institute of Chicago, IL, 1972, exh. cat. no.24, ill. p.23
"Jess: To and From the Printed Page", Independent Curators International, New York, 2007, fig. 5, color ill. pg. 17
DimensionsFrame: 18 1/4 × 22 3/8 × 1 in. (46.4 × 56.8 × 2.5 cm)
Canvas: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Canvas: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Accession Number 1972.90
Classificationspainting
SignedJS (l,l oil paint)
InscriptionsJess '72
188
(63:72)
"A Panic that can Still Come Upon Me"
- Robert Duncan (on back in watercolor upper left)
Hinged cardboard on back (inside in felt pen)
Jess '72 "A Panic That Can Still Come Upon Me" 188
In the world of saying and telling in which I first
same into words there is a primary trouble, a panic that
can still come upon me where the word no longer protects,
transforming teh threat of an overwhelming knowledge into
the power of an imagined reality, or abstracting from a
shaking experience terms for rationalization, but exposes
me the more.
- Robert Duncan, THE TRUTH & LIFE OF MYTH
Back of cardboard (across top in felt pen):
The fish in teh net, the nodes of the lattice, the images
crystallized with the paint:
(11 black and white photographs pasted below)
ProvenanceArtist. (Odyssia Gallery, New York); Des Moines Art Center [purchased from the previous, 1972]
Collections
André Dunoyer de Segonzac
ca. 1920
