No. 40 1949

Forrest Bess made ‘No. 40’ with paint, and… well, what is it? The stark, almost brutal contrast of black and white really grabs you, doesn’t it? It’s like the inside of his mind made visible. Look at that thick, black rectangle, fighting for space against the stark white – it's so immediate. Then, there's that sort of wormlike mark, those little crosses, like a spine. It’s unsettling, primal even. The whole piece feels incredibly personal, as though it was made in a single, feverish sitting. It reminds me of Hilma af Klint, another artist wrestling with unseen worlds. Bess's work, like Klint's, feels like a visual language only he fully understood. And maybe that's the point – art isn't always about answers. Sometimes, it's about the questions that haunt us.