Bess

Sadie Benning has worked primarily in video, exploring aspects of identity, memory, and loss that reflect the artist’s experiences as a gay youth. More recently, Benning has explored “construction” or “jigsaw” paintings and mixed-media works made from wood pieces individually cut and then reassembled into a relief. In Bess, Benning’s prominent use of crosses and circles reference the self-taught American painter Forrest Bess (1911–1977), who created a complex visual language to communicate his controversial ideas about transgender identity. In particular, Benning’s work appears to directly reference Bess’s painting Untitled #42 (1950), which depicts male and female genders as symbols of life and death. For Benning, Forrest Bess undoubtedly represents a pioneering figure for transgender identity and experimentation, making this work very much an homage to the late painter.