Jess, born Burgess Collins, turned to art making full-time in 1949 as, in his words, an “antidote to the scientific method,” after working as a plutonium engineer for the Manhattan Project, which developed the world’s first atomic bombs. Jess’s use of electric light in his lamp series, which includes Assembly Lamp Eight, is, however, distinctly domestic. Small candle lights illuminate an arrangement of glass lantern slides with images of families, landscapes and urban scenes salvaged from secondhand stores and collaged with magazine clippings. The lamp is both an unnerving lightbox revealing histories of unspecified people and places, and the source of a gentle glow suitable for a living room. Familiar yet unsettling, Assembly Lamp invites imaginative looking and irresolvable curiosity, which Jess saw as a strength of art, liberated from “objective” scientific thinking.
Details
- Artist Name: Jess (American, 1923-2004)
- Title: Assembly Lamp Eight
- Date: 1966
- Medium: Assemblage: electric lamp base and octagonal shade constructed of wood, copper wire, plastic, magazine clippings, tape, black paint, glue and glass projection lantern slides
- Dimensions: 16 in. high (40.6 cm); 9 1/2 in. diam. (24.1 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, Gift of Odyssia Skouras
- Accession Number: P.2004.05
- Copyright: © 2016 Jess Collins Trust
Object Information
Odyssia Skouras, New York, donated 14 July 2004 to;
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena.
Jess: Paste-Ups (and Assemblies) 1951-1983
- The John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art, 1983-12-09 to 1984-02-05
- Newport Harbor Art Museum, 1984-04-19 to 1984-06-10
Assemblage
- New York, Kent Gallery, 1987-05-12 to 1987-06-02
Dark Visions: Mid-Century Macabre
- Norton Simon Museum, 2016-09-02 to 2017-01-16
Lost but Found: Assemblage, Collage and Sculpture, 1920-2002
- Norton Simon Museum, 2004-11-05 to 2005-03-28
Image reproduction permission may be granted for scholarly or arts related commercial use. All image requests, regardless of their intended purpose, should be submitted via the reproduction request form.
Images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. Additional permission may be required.
Please allow up to four weeks for your request to be reviewed. Approved requests for the reproduction of an image will receive a contract detailing all fees and conditions of use of the image. Upon receipt of both the signed contract and full payment, the Office of Rights and Reproductions will provide the image. A complimentary copy of the published material must be provided to the Norton Simon Museum.