F. Scott Hess

F. Scott Hess (born July 12, 1955) is an American painter and conceptual artist. He has described himself as a "reluctant realist" whose work is nevertheless grounded in Old Master craft and the representation of observed detail. Art critic Donald Kuspit suggests, "Hess uses profane realism to represent the sacred moments of life, for he knows we live in a profane world with little or no sense of the sacred, let alone of the sacredness of art". Hess' parents divorced when he was seven years old, and he reacted by making drawings of bound nude women - with Hess saying he didn't realize until much later that he was magically binding 'the woman,' his mother, so that she would not leave as his father had. Hess focused on printmaking and drawing at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Art in 1977.

Career F. Scott Hess's first solo exhibition was at Galerie Herzog in Vienna, Austria in 1979, followed shortly thereafter by group exhibitions in Germany, France, and a second solo exhibition in Vienna's Tabak Museum in 1982. While in Vienna Hess was awarded Austria's prestigious Theodor Körner Prize in 1981. In 1984 he moved to Los Angeles. A full monograph encompassing the works in the retrospective, and entitled 'F. Scott Hess' was published in 2014 by Grand Central Press and Gingko Press, with essays by Mike McGee, Doug Harvey, Leah Ollman, and John Seed. Hess was represented by Ovsey Gallery in Los Angeles (1985-1994), Hackett-Freedman Gallery in San Francisco (1998-2009), Hirschl & Adler Modern in New York (2010-2013), and has been represented by Koplin Del Rio Gallery in Culver City since 2010. Hess is currently an Associate Professor with the Laguna College of Art and Design's BFA and MFA programs. Swihart remembers the origins of The Bastards: "The Bastards grew out of this drawing group we have where we get together and draw from the model. We'd hang out afterwards and drink beer and talk. Naturally, we started collaborating on pieces, at first just joking around, but as they became pretty good, we decided to formalize The Bastards. The name refers to the pieces not having any clear parentage. That's also how a lot of people probably consider us". F. Scott Hess describes his stunning cycle of paintings on view at the Orange County Museum of Art as "prayers for atheists." They are religious paintings, he says, "bereft of God but searching for the core of what it means to be human. The collection holds more than one hundred objects, including paintings, old photographs, ceramics, historical documents, weapons, sculpture, and antique artifacts, all appearing as authentic items from their specified time period. The Paternal Suit opened at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Charleston, SC (2012), traveled to the Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile AL (2013), Sumter Gallery of Art, Sumter, SC (2014) and the Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA (2014).