The Forrest Bess letters to L.E. and Patricia Cooke, date from circa 1963-1964 and consist of photocopies of two letters and twelve slides of two paintings. Bess writes concerning two paintings owned by the Cookes, and discusses Carl Jung, and the reactions of the unconscious to Bess's work.
Scope and Contents:
The Forrest Bess letters to L.E. and Patricia Cooke, date from circa 1963-1964 and consist of photocopies of two letters and twelve slides of two paintings. Bess writes concerning two paintings owned by the Cookes, and discusses Carl Jung, and the reactions of the unconscious to Bess's work.
Arrangement:
Due to the small size of the collection, the letters are arranged as one series.
Biographical / Historical:
Forrest Bess (1911-1977) was a painter and fisherman in Bay City, Texas, known for his generally small, abstract, biomorphic paintings, and his ideas on the merging of masculine and feminine energy. L.E. and Patricia Cooke were art collectors.
Although Bess lived much of his life in relative isolation, he was represented by Betty Parsons in New York, and his work received renewed interest after a 1981 solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Although most of his paintings are in private collections, his work can be found in museums including the Menil Collection, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and others.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds the Forrest Bess photographs and slides, the Forrest Bess letters, the Dana Friis-Hansen papers on Forrest Bess, the Louis Waldman research material on Forrest Bess, and the Rosalie Berkowitz papers relating to Forrest Bess.
Provenance:
Donated 1986 by Patricia (Mrs. L.E.) Cooke as part of AAA's Texas Project.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
