two dimensional object with a mixture of photographs and collage-like elements; surface is slightly raised with photographs and shapes imbedded like puzzle pieces; gray textured backing; series of red plus signs dispersed across upper half; two horizontal red lines-one in upper left quadrant and one in upper right quadrant; red vertical line on upper middle right side, and runs downward to bottom, intersecting with a small square-shaped black and with photograph of a cratered rock; five red circles with photographs of space, portraits and life scenes placed in middle of circle; other photographs of life scenes and space dispersed across surface; various colored dots in orange, blue, red, black and white decorate background

%C2%A9 Sadie Benning

Bess, 2016

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On View in Gallery 373expand_more

Sadie Benning has become known for experimental video narratives that explore aspects of identity, memory, and loss that are indicative of the artist’s experiences as a gay youth. More recently, Benning has explored “Construction” or “Jigsaw” paintings—large intensely hand- worked aqua-resin paintings and mixed media works that consist of found images and painted shapes that are each individually cut out of wood and reassembled into a relief.

Here the work titled “Bess” and the prominent use of crosses and circles in the composition directly reference the self-taught artist Forrest Bess (1911- 1977), an influential American painter who created a complex visual language that at once spoke to abstraction, but was also symbolic of his controversial ideas regarding transgender identity.

In particular, Benning's work appears to directly reference Bess' painting Untitled #42 (1950) which symbolically depicts male and female genders as the embodiment of life and death. Forrest Bess undoubtedly represents a pioneering figure for transgender identity and experimentation for an artist like Sadie Benning, making this work very much an homage to the late painter.

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Details
Title
Bess
Artist Life
born 1973
Role
Artist
Accession Number
2017.38
Curator Approved

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two dimensional object with a mixture of photographs and collage-like elements; surface is slightly raised with photographs and shapes imbedded like puzzle pieces; gray textured backing; series of red plus signs dispersed across upper half; two horizontal red lines-one in upper left quadrant and one in upper right quadrant; red vertical line on upper middle right side, and runs downward to bottom, intersecting with a small square-shaped black and with photograph of a cratered rock; five red circles with photographs of space, portraits and life scenes placed in middle of circle; other photographs of life scenes and space dispersed across surface; various colored dots in orange, blue, red, black and white decorate background

© Sadie Benning

Because of © restrictions, we can only show you a small image of this artwork. (You'll have to come see it in person.)