Jess at Kohn Gallery

The Bay Area of the 1950s was the West Coast epicenter for poetry, jazz and art. Part of the excitement came from the close connections between those three art forms. This was especially true in collage, art composed from fragments of photographs, advertisements or newspaper articles, elements brought together in unexpected ways to tell new stories.

Jess, Prelude, 1955, Oil on canvas, 32 x 27 inches, Frame: 33 1/4 x 28 1/4 inches. Image courtesy Kohn Gallery.

Jess, Untitled (Girl with Geese), 1955, Collage, 13 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches. Image courtesy Kohn Gallery.

Jess, Cake Walk Princess, 1954, Collage, 37 x 23 1/2 inches, Frame: 46 1/2 x 32 1/2 inches. Image courtesy Kohn Gallery.

Jess, Didactic Nickelodeon, 1955, 41 works on paper, ink and printed paper collages, Suitcase: 22 x 16 1/2 x 6 inches, Collages: 20 1/2 x 15 3/4 inches/each, Stand 14 x 8 inches. Photo by Karl Puchlik, Courtesy Kohn Gallery.

Jess, A Wish in the Form of a Landscape, 1954, Oil on canvas, 40 x 52 inches, Frame: 50 x 62 inches. Image courtesy Kohn Gallery.

through Sept. 7