Suspended In Vacancy, He Seemed To Float: Translation #14

1965

JESS American, 1923 - 2004

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About the Artwork

Born Burgess Collins, Jess trained as a nuclear chemist and helped develop a process for plutonium production during the Manhattan project. After experiencing a devastating vision of the earth being destroyed by nuclear weapons, he quit his job and enrolled in art school, dropping his surname as he abandoned the bourgeois values of his parents. He also rejected abstract art, preferring to incorporate imagery related to myth, memories, and personal associations in his paintings. The Translations, made between 1959 and 1976, pair found images from Tarot cards, rendered in thick, colored paint, and found text. Suspended in Vacancy is based on a J. Augustus Knapp illustration in John Lloyd's Etidorphia (1895), an occult novel that predicted the end of the earth. The title of Knapp's drawing is stamped into the wet paint below the image, and a quote from Lloyd’s pessimistic revelation is on the verso. From Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 89 (2015)

Title Suspended In Vacancy, He Seemed To Float: Translation #14

Artwork Date 1965

Artist JESS

Life Dates 1923 - 2004

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Oil on canvas mounted on wood

Dimensions Unframed: 30 1/4 × 20 inches (76.8 × 50.8 cm) Framed: 33 1/2 × 23 1/4 inches (85.1 × 59.1 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department Contemporary Art after 1950

Credit Museum Purchase, W. Hawkins Ferry Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 2006.107

Markings

Signed Signed and dated, lower left of image: JA Knapp 94 [from an illustration by J. Augustus Knapp in Etidorhpa]

Inscriptions Inscribed, center, below image: "Suspended in Vacancy, He Seemed to Float."

Provenance

2006-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

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Published References

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We regularly update our object record as new research and findings emerge, and we welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Courtesy of Odyssia Skouras

JESS, Suspended In Vacancy, He Seemed To Float: Translation #14, 1965, oil on canvas mounted on wood. Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, W. Hawkins Ferry Fund, 2006.107.