Editing Jess Collins (section)

== Biography ==
Jess was born Burgess Franklin Collins in [[Long Beach, California]]. He was drafted into the military and worked on the production of [[plutonium]] for the [[Manhattan Project]].<ref name="Jess">{{Cite web |title=Jess |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/jess/ |access-date=2024-01-25 |website=SFMOMA |language=en-US}}</ref>  After his discharge in 1946, Jess worked at the [[Hanford Atomic Energy Project]] in [[Richland, Washington]], and painted in his spare time, but his dismay at the threat of [[atomic weapon]]s led him to abandon his scientific career and focus on his art.

In 1949, Jess enrolled in the California School of the Arts (now the [[San Francisco Art Institute]]) and, after breaking with his family, began referring to himself simply as "Jess".<ref name="Jess"/> In the late 1940s, Jess met [[Robert Duncan (poet)|Robert Duncan]] and the painter [[Lyn Brockway]], and became active in numerous exhibitions, poetry gatherings, and creative endeavors through their circle.<ref name="Jess"/> He met [[Robert Duncan (poet)|Robert Duncan]] in 1951 and began a relationship with the poet that lasted for 37 years until Duncan's death in 1988.<ref name="Jess"/><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=McDowell |first=Tara |date=2019-10-15 |title=A Household of Minor Things: The Collections of Robert Duncan and Jess |url=https://lithub.com/a-household-of-minor-things-the-collections-of-robert-duncan-and-jess/ |access-date=2025-01-30 |website=Literary Hub |language=en-US}}</ref>  In 1952, in San Francisco, Jess, with Duncan and painter [[Harry Jacobus]], opened the [[King Ubu Gallery]], which became an important venue for alternative art and which remained so when, in 1954, poet [[Jack Spicer]] reopened the space as the [[Six Gallery reading|Six Gallery]].

Many of Jess's paintings and [[collage]]s have themes drawn from [[chemistry]], [[alchemy]], the [[occult]], and male beauty, including a series called ''Translations'' (1959–1976) which is done with heavily laid-on paint in a [[paint-by-number]] style. In 1975, the [[Wadsworth Atheneum]] displayed six of the "Translations" paintings in their ''Matrix 2'' exhibition.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://2gc0771gkd8m295j5p2hvgje72l.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Matrix-2.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2014-02-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140307060723/http://2gc0771gkd8m295j5p2hvgje72l.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Matrix-2.pdf |archive-date=2014-03-07 }}</ref> In the late 1950s, Jess also filled [[Pauline Kael]]'s home on Oregon St in Berkeley, CA, with fantastical and Romantic murals, which still adorn the walls today.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dinkelspiel |first=Frances |date=2016-05-09 |title=The Jess murals at former Pauline Kael house are saved |url=http://www.berkeleyside.org/2016/05/09/the-jess-murals-at-former-pauline-kael-house-are-saved |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=Berkeleyside |language=en-US}}</ref> Collins also created elaborate collages using old book illustrations and [[comic strip]]s (particularly, the strip ''[[Dick Tracy]]'', which he used to make his own strip ''Tricky Cad'').  Jess's final work, ''Narkissos'', is a complex rendered 6'x5' drawing owned by the [[San Francisco Museum of Modern Art]].

A Jess retrospective (''Jess: A Grand Collage, 1951–1993'') toured the United States in 1993 to 1994, accompanied by a book of the same title.  The book included pictures of some of the paintings and collages from the tour. Interspersed between the pictures were essays by various contributors including poet [[Michael Palmer (poet)|Michael Palmer]] who wrote an extended piece on Jess's ''Narkissos.''

Sections of Jess's paintings 'Arkadia Last Resort' were used by [[Faithless]] in 2004 for the front covers to their single "[[I Want More (Faithless song)|I Want More]]".

In 2008, an exhibition of Jess's drawings was held at [[Gallery Paule Anglim]] in San Francisco.<ref>[http://www.gallerypauleanglim.com/Gallery_Paule_Anglim/Jess.html Gallery Paule Anglim, Artist profile Jess] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331032329/http://www.gallerypauleanglim.com/Gallery_Paule_Anglim/Jess.html |date=2012-03-31 }}, February 6 - March 1, 2008</ref>

In 2014 and 2015, a traveling exhibit titled "An Opening of the Field: Jess, Robert Duncan, and Their Circle" toured across the country to warm reception.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cotter |first=Holland |date=2014-01-16 |title=The Company They Kept |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/arts/design/robert-duncan-and-jess-and-their-wonderland-of-art.html |access-date=2025-01-30 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The exhibit explored what it was like for the couple to be "young, gifted, and odd" in San Francisco after World War II.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=The Week |date=2014-02-19 |title=Exhibit of the week: An Opening of the Field: Jess, Robert Duncan, and Their Circle |url=https://theweek.com/articles/450637/exhibit-week-opening-field-jess-robert-duncan-circle |access-date=2025-01-30 |website=theweek |language=en}}</ref> The two men lived and worked for decades from their historic [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]] home in the [[Mission District, San Francisco|Mission District]], which was lined with more than 5,000 books, 5,300 music records, and countless works of visual art.<ref name=":0" />