Jess, 1923-2004

Jess, American visual artist, was born Burgess Collins on August 6, 1923 in Long Beach, California. Jess was educated as a chemist at the California Institute of Technology. Disillusioned with his scientific career, in 1949 he enrolled in the California School of the Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) and began referring to himself as "Jess". He met Robert Duncan in 1951 and maintained a relationship with the poet that lasted until Duncan's death in 1988.

George Herms, one of the founders of the California Assemblage Art movement, was a regular correspondent of Jess's.

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