Produced on the occasion of the exhibition Forrest Bess at Fridericianum, Kassel, 15 February–6 September, 2020.

Forrest Bess was one of the most interesting figures in US-American post-war art. Starting in the 1940s, he lived in isolation in Texas and created small, biomorphic abstractions that reflected his visionary experiences between wakefulness and sleep. Bess combined art with an intense exploration of mythology, psychology, and sexology, believing that the path to completeness and immortality could only be achieved through what he called hermaphroditism. His unconventional works received posthumous recognition in international exhibitions and influenced many contemporary artists such as Amy Sillman, Richard Hawkins and James Benning.

With texts from Tomma Abts, Dieter Schwarz, Amy Sillman & Moritz Wesseler.

A key figure in the New York art scene, Amy Sillman is renowned for her singular approach to painting and drawing. Her writings extend a practice that challenges traditions and theoretical frameworks with criticality and humor, and advocates subjectivity: she reevaluates Abstract Expressionism with a queer eye, explores the meanings of color and shape, and discusses in depth the work of other artists—from Delacroix (and Cézanne!) to Maria Lassnig to Carolee Schneemann to Laura Owens. In Faux Pas, a collection of her most recent essays, alongside her cartoons and original drawings, art—as personal as it is political—is a practice that responds to today’s struggles.