Editing Jess Collins

{{Short description|American artist (1923–2004)}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = Jess Collins
| image         = 
| imagesize     = 
| caption       = 
| birth_name     = Burgess Franklin Collins
| birth_date     = {{Birth date |1923|8|6}}
| birth_place      = [[Long Beach, California]]
| death_date     = {{death date and age |2004|1|2|1923|8|6}}
| death_place    = 
| nationality   = [[United States|American]]
| field         = [[Visual art]]
| training      = [[San Francisco Art Institute]]
| movement      = 
| works         = 
| patrons       = 
| influenced by =
| influenced    =
| awards        = 
| partner = [[Robert Duncan (poet)|Robert Duncan]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ibson |first1=John |title=Men without Maps: Some Gay Males of the Generation before Stonewall |date=22 October 2019 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-65611-3 |pages=9 |language=en}}</ref>
}}

'''Jess Collins''' (August 6, 1923 – January 2, 2004), simply known today as '''Jess''', was an American visual artist.

== 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" />

== Museum collections ==
* [[San Francisco Museum of Modern Art]], San Francisco, CA<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/96.492/|title=Jess, Narkissos, 1976-1991|last=|first=|date=|website=SFMOMA|archive-url=|archive-date=|url-status=|access-date=2019-01-22}}</ref>
* The [[Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco]], San Francisco, CA<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://art.famsf.org/jess-burgess-franklin-collins/enamord-mage-translation-6-200587|title=The Enamord Mage: Translation #6 - Jess (Burgess Franklin Collins)|date=2015-05-08|website=FAMSF Search the Collections|language=en|access-date=2019-01-22}}</ref>
* The [[Di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art]], Napa, CA<ref>{{cite web|title=The Collection|url=http://www.dirosaart.org/about/the-collection/|website=dirosaart.org|date=16 June 2010 |access-date=2016-11-03}}</ref>
* The [[Museum of Modern Art]], New York City, NY<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/artists/2913?locale=en|title=Jess {{!}} MoMA|website=The Museum of Modern Art|language=en|access-date=2019-01-24}}</ref>
* The [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York City, NY<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/626876?searchField=All&amp;sortBy=relevance&amp;who=Jess$Jess&amp;ft=*&amp;offset=0&amp;rpp=20&amp;pos=1 |title=Caesar's Gate IV |date= 1955 |website=www.metmuseum.org |access-date=2019-01-24}}</ref>
* The [[Whitney Museum|Whitney Museum of American Art]], New York City, NY
* The [[National Gallery of Art]], Washington, D.C.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.97502.html|title=Ex. 5 - Mind's I: Translation #12|website=www.nga.gov|access-date=2019-01-24}}</ref>
* The [[Crocker Art Museum]], Sacramento, CA<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.crockerart.org/collections/american-art-after-1945/artworks/feignting-spell-1954|title=Feignting Spell, 1954|website=Crocker Art Museum|access-date=2019-01-24}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*''O! Tricky Cad & Other Jessoterica''. Edited by Michael Duncan. (Siglio, 2012) {{ISBN|978-1-938221-00-2}}
*''Jess: To and From the Printed Page''. [[John Ashbery]], Thomas Evans, [[Lisa Jarnot]]; (Independent Curators International, 2007) {{ISBN|0-916365-75-1}}
*''Jess, a Grand Collage, 1951-1993''. (Buffalo Fine Arts / Albright Knox Art Gallery, 1993) {{ISBN|0-914782-85-1}}

==External links==
*[http://jesscollins.org/ Jess Collins Trust]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927063648/http://www.sfai.edu/People/Person.aspx?id=147&navID=6&sectionID=2&typeID=1 San Francisco Art Institute: Jess Collins, BFA 1951] from San Francisco Chronicle, January 7, 2004 [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/01/07/BAGIC44V2V1.DTL] by Kenneth Baker
*[http://www.askart.com/askart/j/burgess_collins_jess/burgess_collins_jess.aspx Ask/ART: Jess]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060907032811/http://ici-exhibitions.org/Exhibitions/jess/jess.html ''Jess: To and From the Printed Page''] exhibition of Jess's [[impastos]] from his "Translation" series together with many of his collages and designs, as well as the books and magazines in which they were reproduced
*[http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt4r29q8b4/ Guide to the Jess Papers] at [[The Bancroft Library]]
*[http://pr.caltech.edu/periodicals/caltechnews/articles/v41/jess.html Pulled Through Time: A "Caltech News" Reporter Traces the Life of an Elusive Artist]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120331032329/http://www.gallerypauleanglim.com/Gallery_Paule_Anglim/Jess.html Gallery Paule Anglim]
*[http://sigliopress.com/about-jess/ "Jess: Master of Collage Aesthetic"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150225021329/http://sigliopress.com/about-jess/ |date=2015-02-25 }} by Michael Duncan at Siglio Press

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Jess}}
[[Category:1923 births]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:American gay artists]]
[[Category:American collage artists]]
[[Category:20th-century American painters]]
[[Category:Artists from Long Beach, California]]
[[Category:San Francisco Art Institute alumni]]
[[Category:Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area]]
[[Category:LGBTQ people from California]]
[[Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people]]