"It was like mummy wrap. It was bouncing off the toilet and down the hallway and on the highway and then I suddenly got caught up in it—as you do in dreams—and I was wrapped in the history of art, like a mummy. It was very uncomfortable. I didn't like being in the history of art."
"As I'm dying in a ditch, I said, 'Thank God I'm not in the history of art anymore.' Then I woke up. The bizarre series of imagined events didn't end there. On a highway, a large car came towards art history and crashed right into it, sending Hess into a ditch."
"It's an incredibly detailed painting, filled with nods to famed works of art. It's also a significant painting that gives a peek into the mind of an artist considering the past, present, and future. But, Hess didn't set out to paint this scene on the large canvas that had been hanging out in his studio for a year."
F. Scott Hess experienced a vivid fever dream four decades ago in which the history of art overflowed from a toilet, wrapped around him like mummy wraps, and ultimately crashed into him on a highway. In the dream, he was famous for two paintings—a monk and an egg—that appeared alongside centuries of renowned artworks, an experience he found deeply uncomfortable. Recently, Hess created a large-scale painting titled "The Dream of Art History" that visualizes this surreal 1978 dream. The work is densely detailed with references to famous artworks and represents Hess's contemplation of artistic legacy, fame, and his place within art history. Originally planning a painting about Hollywood fame, Hess abandoned that concept and instead chose to depict the dream, which held deeper personal significance.
Read at Hi-Fructose Magazine - The New Contemporary Art Magazine
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