The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin
hosts the traveling exhibition "J
ess: To and From the Printed Page" from Feb. 12 through
April 6, 2008. Organized and circulated by Independent Curators International (iCI), New
York, and curated by Ingrid Schaffner, the exhibition features more than 50 original
works of art, a 16mm film transferred to DVD, a sound recording, sculpture and
ephemera.
"
Jess: To and From the Printed Page" is complemented by the Ransom Center's
concurrent exhibition "On the Road with the Beats," which takes visitors on a journey
through the cities, landscapes and communities that fostered and shaped the most
important works of the Beat Generation, from the early 1940s to the mid-1960s.
Simply known as "Jess" (1923-2004), the artist Burgess Collins emerged in the
1950s from within the literary context of Beat culture in San Francisco. He developed his
own artistic style, filling it with literary references that span the ages from ancient and
classical times to the contemporary moment in which he lived.
Jess's imagery was a form of dialogue with the written word. As he once said,
"I have always delighted in [the] relationship between words and images [and] thought of
the book as a form of collage space."
"Jess: To and From the Printed Page" concentrates on how Jess's visual works
connect to the literary culture in which he thrived - personally, intellectually and
aesthetically. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Jess developed his artistic style, with printed
matter serving as subject, object and fodder. He gave his works titles full of literary
references, and many of his literary heroes are evoked directly or referenced throughout
his work, including James Joyce, Lewis Carroll, Gertrude Stein and poet Robert Duncan,
Jess's companion and career-long collaborator on numerous print-related projects.
Jess collaborated with poets and other writers and worked with small presses
and limited-edition publications. His collages, which he called "paste-ups," drew from
19th-century illustrations and engravings, often recalling the Surrealist collage methods
of Max Ernst.
The exhibition also contains a work from Jess's "Tricky Cad" series, in which
Dick Tracy comic strips are rearranged, his thick, colorful paintings called "Translations"
and his "salvages," incomplete canvases he acquired from thrift stores and re-painted or
"salvaged" with additional images.
With many of the displayed works having never before been shown together in
public, the exhibition enables visitors to better understand Jess as an "outsider" artist
who, despite his widespread following of devotees, is an unfamiliar name within the
larger contemporary art community today.
The exhibition, tour, and catalogue are made possible, in part, by a grant from
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and an award from the National
Endowment for the Arts. Additional support provided by the iCI Exhibition Partners.
Information about iCI, Schaffner, the exhibition catalog and itinerary can be
found at
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/press/releases/2007/jess.html .
