Spots 1967

Here, we're looking at Forrest Bess' painting, Spots, made with oil on canvas, and it's a real trip. The way Bess approached painting was totally his own, like a personal experiment, a visual diary of his inner world. Check out how the surface feels both flat and alive. The gray horizontal lines are like bars, or maybe water? Then you've got these red and blue spots all over the place, kinda like a strange polka dot dream. The spots are dabbed on, each one unique, creating this vibrating energy, like they're breathing. And that circle, sitting right at the top, it's like a sun, or a portal, or maybe just a spot too. Bess reminds me a bit of Hilma af Klint, both searching for something beyond the visible in their art. His work is a reminder that art doesn't need to make sense to be powerful, sometimes it just needs to be felt.