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Figurative


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Image of Performance

Performance
Painting

1997
48 x 64 in. (121.92 x 162.56 cm)

F. Scott Hess (Baltimore, Maryland, 1955 - ) Primary

Object Type: Painting
Medium and Support: Oil on canvas
Credit Line: Gift of Alvin W. Smith
Accession Number: 2009.01.02

SJMA Label Text


Bookish (2011-2012)

Over a period of six years, beginning in 1994, F. Scott Hess produced a strikingly semi-naturalistic, psychologically charged series of paintings that he named . The twenty-four works are based on the illustrated medieval and Renaissance devotional manuscript generally referred to as a Book of Hours. Hess’s complex, ambiguous narratives transpire during one day in contemporary Southern California.

The text that Hess wrote for each painting adds to the mystery:

The sound of the shattering teacup brings only a brief dip in the music’s tempo, a heartbeat’s acknowledgment of more fragments added to the heap of shards that mark human lives past. The endless beat of hand against skin is made bearable by the flight of the fiddler’s bow, a melody transported from a more ancient people. Entranced, he encourages their thoughts to find meaning in the comfortable warmth of his palette.

The Girl is quick at her task, thanks to summers at her family’s business. Hoping to erase her Great Aunt Adelaide’s embarrassment, she hurriedly pushes the viscous remnants of torte and tea into a small mound, ignoring her cousin’s offer of a thin paper napkin. “What help is that against the infirmity of old age?” she thinks.

“Oh, Adelaide,” clucks her older sister. “Always the show-off.”

Shooting a sidelong glance at an older gentleman in a striped tie, she whispers louder than she should, “You know he’ll never give a damn and you’ve only managed to ruin a pair of brand new shoes!”


Exhibition


Bookish, September 25, 2011 - January 15, 2012, 2nd Floor, South Gallery, San José Museum of Art.

F. Scott Hess Retrospective, January 25 - February 27, 2014, Begovich Art Gallery, California State University, Fullerton.

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  • Image Dimensions: 48 x 64 in. (121.92 x 162.56 cm)

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