Biography

Hess earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1977, but his most intense period of study took place at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria, under the tutelage of quasi-Surrealist painter Rudolf Hauser. In Vienna, he became technically proficient in the techniques of the Old Masters and began painting with egg tempera and oil—a medium he continues to employ. After living briefly in Paris, Hess moved to Los Angeles and settled in the artistic enclave of Echo Park, which often serves as the backdrop for his allegorical narratives.

Over a period of six years, beginning in 1994, Hess produced a strikingly seminaturalistic, psychologically charged series of paintings that he named The Hours of The Day.  Composed of twenty-four works, the format for the series is based on the medieval and Renaissance devotional manuscripts generally referred to as the Book of Hours. However, Hess’s complex, ambiguous narratives unfold over the course of a single day in contemporary Southern California and generally lack overt religious references. “His images prompt not prayers, but inquiries,” according to art historian Richard Vine. “And the master question is whether any significant order can be discerned in our way of life…any higher purpose in our now godless trajectory of living, birthing, and dying.” (SJMA Collections Committee, 2004)

Figurative painter F. Scott Hess probes the dark underbelly of humanity to uncover a world that sometimes seems hauntingly familiar. The people inhabiting his canvases struggle to navigate the unpredictable waters of their daily lives and to confront their deepest, darkest inner fears. Hess conveys their stories using the accessible visual language of narrative realism, a style he helped to revitalize during an era that favored a cool, formalist aesthetic. In fact, Hess is part of a loosely affiliated group of Los Angeles-based realist painters self-dubbed “The Bastards,” playfully referring to their “illegitimate” art-world status.1

Hess earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1977, but his most intense period of study took place at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria, under the tutelage of quasi-surrealist painter Rudolf Hausner. In Vienna, Hess became proficient in the methods of the Old Masters, and was introduced to the egg tempera and oil-mixed technique that he often employs. In 1984, Hess moved to Los Angeles and settled in the artistic enclave of Echo Park, which often serves as the backdrop for his allegorical narratives.

Over a period of six years, beginning in 1994, Hess produced a strikingly seminaturalistic, psychologically charged series of 24 paintings that he titled The Hours of the Day. The format for the series is based on the medieval and Renaissance devotional manuscripts generally referred to as the Book of Hours, though Hess’s complex, ambiguous narratives unfold over the course of a single day in contemporary Southern California and generally lack overt religious references. “His images prompt not prayers, but inquiries,” according to art historian Richard Vine. “And the master question is whether any significant order can be discerned in our way of life … any higher purpose in our now godless trajectory of living, birthing, and dying.”2

Each hour of Hess’s day is relayed through a dramatic vignette in which ordinary men, women, and children are the principle characters. The last sequence begins at 11:00 p.m. and is pervaded by the darkness, mystery, and confusion familiar to the night. Night Gardener’s Escape (1995) occurs at 4:00 a.m. and is the final painting of the series. In a secluded garden with a spectacular view of the city skyline, an unclothed, older man wanders away from a house that Hess modeled on the St. Rémy asylum where Vincent Van Gogh spent the last years of his life. With a desperate gaze, he looks toward the heavens, as if seeking some peaceful resolution.

As he did for each painting in the Hours series, Hess authored a brief fictional account that adds a layer of intrigue to the mysterious drama:

Flashlight in hand, the guard pushes out onto the grounds of the big house. … “Damn that crazy old bastard,” he mutters. “Nothin’ but trouble since the moment they put him in here.” … The guard shines his light on the circular stone reservoir. He shivers at the reflection of a lone star in the surrounding blackness of the garden. Beneath the water’s surface, the Old Man’s open eyes gaze heavenward. No more secrets escape his open lips. The white body is translucent, as if the dark cold water could pass through his skin. A large rock rests on his sternum, held tightly by purplish, arthritic fingers that refuse to relinquish their grip on the instrument of his last great act of will.3

We cannot know for sure the outcome of the night gardener’s escape, but we are led to imagine that in the stillness of this dark hour he found release in the taking of his own life.

Shortly before Hess began working on this painting, he received word that his former instructor Rudolf Hausner had died. While Hess began the face as a self-portrait, he realized midstream that he had unconsciously portrayed the face of his influential mentor.4 Following the completion of the piece, having discovered the scope of this loss, Hess dedicated Night Gardener’s Escape in memory of his teacher. For it was with his passing that Hess came a bit closer to knowing himself—and above all what it means to be human. —A.W.

1. Other members of this group include John Frame, Steve Galloway, Jon Swihart, and Peter Zokosky. Michael McMillen is a former member.
2. Richard Vine, “The Very Rich Hours of F. Scott Hess,” F. Scott Hess: The Hours of the Day (Newport Beach, Calif.: Orange County Museum of Art, 2001), 11.
3. F. Scott Hess, 72.
4. Rudolf Hausner frequently painted similar upward-gazing self-portraits that became known throughout Austria as his “Adam” images

(SJMA Selections publication, 2004)

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