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| Forrest Bess The Prophecy (Sputnik) 1946 (painted in 1946 but not titled by the artist until after 1957) oil on canvas, mounted on panel Phillips Collection, Washington DC |
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| Forrest Bess The Asteroids #1 1946 oil on canvas Phillips Collection, Washington DC |
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| Forrest Bess The Asteroids #2 1946 oil on canvas Phillips Collection, Washington DC |
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| Forrest Bess The Asteroids #3 1946 oil on canvas Phillips Collection, Washington DC |
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| Forrest Bess The Asteroids #4 1946 oil on canvas Phillips Collection, Washington DC |
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| Forrest Bess The Search 1946 painted relief of wood, plastic and glass Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Forrest Bess You Can't Have Me 1949 oil on canvas Phillips Collection, Washington DC |
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| Forrest Bess Untitled (The Crown) 1949 oil on canvas Whitney Museum of American Art, New York |
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| Forrest Bess Untitled (Meeting White Forms on Black) ca. 1950 oil on canvas Menil Collection, Houston |
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| Forrest Bess Untitled #44 1950 oil on canvas Phillips Collection, Washington DC |
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| Forrest Bess Sticks ca. 1950 oil on canvas Menil Collection, Houston |
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| Forrest Bess The Bridge 1952 oil paint and silver leaf on panel Phillips Collection, Washington DC |
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| Forrest Bess The Hermaphrodite 1957 oil on canvas Menil Collection, Houston |
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| Forrest Bess Drawings 1957 oil on linen Whitney Museum of American Art, New York |
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| Forrest Bess The Candle 1958 oil on board Dallas Museum of Art |
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| Forrest Bess Untitled (no. 7) 1959 oil on canvas Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
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| Forrest Bess Untitled 1970 oil on canvas Dallas Museum of Art |
from In Nine Sleep Valley
Geode, the troll's melon
Rind of crystals velvet smoke meat blue
Formed far away under fantastic
Pressures, then cloven in two
By the taciturn rock shop man, twins now forever
Will they hunger for each other
When one goes north and one goes south?
I expect minerals never do.
Enough for them was a feast
Of flaws, the molten start and glacial sleep,
The parting kiss.
Still face to face in halfmoonlight
Sparkling comes easy to the Gemini.
Centimeters deep yawns the abyss.
– James Merrill (1972)