Coming Home: Paintings by Forrest Bess

City by the Sea Museum
Palacios, Texas
April 21-June 24, 2023

Opening reception Friday, April 21, 5:30-7:30 pm
Special Guest Speakers: Judith Allen and Alicia Waters

Special Guest Lecture by Clare Elliott, Menil Collection
Saturday, June 17, 2:00-3:00 pm


Forrest Bess: Out of the Blue

Camden Art Centre
London, UK
September 30-January 15, 2023

Kirk Hopper Fine Art contributed several paintings to this exhibition, which drew from public and private collections across the world, alongside archival material relating to Bess's wide-ranging research. Photo: Luke Walker


The Forrest Bess Effect: Visions Laid Bare

Franklin Parrasch Gallery at the 2021 ADAA Art Show
November 4-7, 2021

Works by Forrest Bess, Marcia Hafif, Mike Kelley, Joe Light, Chris Martin, Betty Parsons, Sylvia Snowden, Joan Snyder, and Paul Thek


Forrest Bess

Fridericianum
Kassel, Germany
February 15-April 26, 2020

Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation

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Forrest Bess: Seeing Things Invisible

Gallery Talk by Andrew Masullo
UC Berkeley Art Museum
September 14, 2014; 3:00 pm

Artist Andrew Masullo offers his personal insights into the work of Forrest Bess, who has long been one of his inspirations. Thirty-four of Masullo's paintings were included in the 2012 Whitney Biennial.

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Though This Be Madness

Published July 2014
RosettaBooks

This groundbreaking biography by psychoanalyst and author Steven Poser, featuring dozens of Bess's letters and including eight of his acclaimed paintings, explores that narrow line between insanity and creative genius where so many brilliant artists and visionaries have walked.

The book at Amazon.com


Forrest Bess: Fisherman, Painter, Philosopher

Lecture by Clare Elliott
UC Berkeley Art Museum
June 12, 2014

The lecture will take place at 7:00 pm at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, George Gund Theater.

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Pace Gems: Selections from the Pace Foundation Permanent Collection

Linda Pace Foundation
San Antonio, Tex.
April 18-September 13, 2014

Featuring San Antonio, regional, and internationally recognized artists, including Forrest Bess.

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Forrest Bess: Seeing Things Invisible

UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive
Berkeley, Calif.
June 11-September 14, 2014

Neuberger Museum of Art
Purchase, N.Y.
February 16-May 11, 2014

Hammer Museum
Los Angeles, Calif.
September 29, 2013-January 5, 2014

Forrest Bess: Seeing Things Invisible is organized by the Menil Collection, curated by Clare Elliott in collaboration with contemporary artist Robert Gober, expanding on a project he created for the 2012 Whitney Biennial. It will feature a selection of over 40 paintings, along with rare works on paper and selected letters.

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2012 Whitney Biennial: Forrest Bess

Whitney Museum of American Art
March 1-May 27, 2012

With a roster of artists at all points in their careers the Biennial provides a look at the current state of contemporary art in America. This is the seventy-sixth in the ongoing series of Biennials and Annuals presented by the Whitney since 1932, two years after the Museum was founded.

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A Tribute to Forrest Bess

Christie's Special Exhibition Gallery
March 1-April 3, 2012

Christie's is proud to present Forrest Bess, a unique private selling exhibition of the Harry Burkhart Collection of works by Forrest Bess. The show will feature an extraordinary grouping of approximately forty works and will afford a rare and comprehensive view of the artist's oeuvre, one that continues to feel new today, affirming Bess's self-categorization as one who saw beyond his time.

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