Forrest Moses: Field of Beauty Digital Catalog

ForrestMoses Field of Beauty

The Iris Monotypes

Forrest Moses

Field of Beauty

APRIL 26 - MAY 25 | 2024

Forrest Moses (1934 - 2021) is lauded as the pinnacle of painting abstracted forms in of nature and its essence with unmatched finesse. Moses provides viewers a glimpse into the profound beauty of this magnificent flower by way of his interpretation of its elegance and striking symmetry. “I adore the iris flower, its sophistication and natural beauty. I seek to discover nature’s truth and give life to a painted image by understanding the rhythms and pulses behind appearances.”

As with his renowned oil paintings on canvas, the monotypes of Forrest Moses are each an original work of art that bears complete fidelity to the visual engagement of the artist with nature. Moses made his monotypes by painting with pigments onto a Plexiglas plate and then impressing that painting onto a chine colle of rice paper melded with thick Arches paper through the pressure of a large etching press.

Moses approached his materials with the concept of what he called “an open heart.” Inspired by Eastern Philosophy, creating paintings and monotypes emulating the discipline of the craftsman of Japanese aesthetics: mindless of the process but mindful of the moment. His seemingly effortless works come from a place of surrender, conceding his own individual consciousness to nature’s currents resulting in a striking balance between abstraction and the recognizable. The process of surrender is echoed in Moses’s adept use of the monotype medium allowing for experimentation and refinement of his vision.

Moses referred to these works as “stamps, thumbprints” of the spiritual consciousness of his life as an artist. Like his oils, the monotypes are what he thought of as byproducts of his meditations on nature and its patterns and textures, and his own feelings of being there. The marks, lines and colors of his art transfer the essence of that experience and convey the meanings of it. In this process, for Moses, beauty becomes truth.

Field of Irises, 1994 Monotype

Purple Iris, 1993 Monotype

34.75 x 15.75 in.

Blue and Magenta Iris, 1992 Monotype

34 x 16.5 in.

F 91/75, 1991 Monotype

35 x 15.5 in.

Iris ll, 1991 Monotype

23.25 x 8.75 in.

F 02/10, 2002

Monotype

10 x 9.75 in.

F 99/21, 1999 Monotype 21.5 x 14.5 in.

F 92/68, 1992

Monotype

22.75 x 34.25 in.

Iris I, 1991 Monotype 30 x 22 in.

F

Iris, 1993 Monotype 29.75 x 10.5 in.

Monarch in Purple, 1999 Monotype

21.5 x 13.75 in.

M 2011, 2011 Monotype

33.5 x 21 in.

M 13/21, 2013

Monotype

16.75 x 33.25 in.

M 06/06, 2006

Monotype

L 10/12, 2010 Monotype 15.75 x 15.5 in.

Galerie Miyabe, Okinawa, Japan

Galerie Miyabe, Fukuoka, Japan

Crane Art, Nagoya, Japan

Crane Art, Ikebukuro, Japan

Crane Art, Tokyo, Japan

Art Dumonde, Tokyo, Japan 1987 Paper Works II, McNay Art Museum, Austin, TX,

Egypt, Munson Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

1983 American Artists as Printmakers, 23rd National Print Exhibit, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, Print Invitational, Connecticut College, New London, CT

Abilene Fine Arts Museum, Abilene, TX

Sioux City Arts Center, Sioux City, IA

Salina Arts Center, Salina, KS

Wyoming State Museum, Cheyenne, WY

Spiva Art Center, Joplin, MO

1982 Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, NE

1981 San Antonio Museum of Art, TX

University of Houston, TX

1980 Monotypes, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY

New York Realists ’80, Thorpe Intermedia Gallery, Sparkhill, NY

1979 Art of Paper ’79, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC

1978 The Landscape: Different Points of View, Wave Hill, New York, NY

1976 Arco Center for Visual Arts, Los Angeles, CA

Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM

Roswell Museum, Roswell, NM

1975 Contemporary Landscape Painting, Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, OK

1974 Abilene Fine Arts Museum, Abilene, TX

Twelve from New Mexico (traveling exhibition) Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio, TX; Beaumont Art Museum, Beaumont, TX; Tyler Museum, Tyler, TX

Wichita Falls Museum & Art Center, Wichita Falls, TX

1972 Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM

1966 Monterey Peninsula Museum, CA

1964 Beaumont Art Museum, Beaumont, TX

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX

1961 Pratt Institute, New York, NY

Selected Collections

Amerada Hess Corporation, New York, NY

American Telephone & Telegraph, New York, NY

Ana Hotel, Tokyo, Japan

Beatrice Foods, Chicago, IL

Chicopee Manufacturing Company, Nautcenswick, NJ

Citibank, New York, NY

Deloitte Touche, Washington, DC

CRS Design Associates, Houston, TX

Dallas Arboretum, Dallas, TX

Diamond Shamrock Corporation, Dallas, TX

First National Bank of Arizona, Phoenix, AZ

General Electric, Fairfield, CT

W.R. Grace & Company, Dallas, TX

Grand Hyatt, Washington, DC

Gulf Oil Company, Houston, TX

Hilton Hotel, Chicago, IL

Houstonian Hotel, Houston, TX

Hughes Aircraft, GA

Huntington Gallery, University of Texas, Austin, TX

IBM, Tucson, AZ

Illinois State University, Normal, IL

InterFirst Bank, Dallas, TX

Jundt Art Museum, Spokane, WA

Kaiser-Permanente, Denver, CO

Keisey Seybold Clinic, Houston, TX

Kimberly Clark, Dallas, TX

La Paloma Hotel, Tucson, AZ

Little Neil, Aspen, CO

LTV Corporation, Dallas, TX

Mellon Bank, Pittsburgh, PA

Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX

Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC

Mobil Oil Company, Dallas, TX

Mountain Bell, Denver, CO

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX

New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM

Oppenheimer Management, New York, NY

Owens Corning Fiberglass, Toledo, OH

Pfizer, Inc., New York, NY

Phillips Petroleum, Denver, CO

The Phoenician Hotel, Phoenix, AZ

Princeton University

Prudential Insurance Company of America, Newark, NJ

RCA, New York, NY

Rainer Bank, Seattle, WA

Roswell Museum of Art, Roswell, NM

Simpson Timber Company, Seattle, WA

Spanish Bay Resort, Pebble Beach, CA

Sunwest Bank, Albuquerque, NM

Tesoro Petroleum, San Antonio, TX

Texas Instruments, Dallas, TX

Tobin Group, San Antonio, TX

Touche-Ross, San Francisco, CA

United Airlines, Denver, CO

US Tobacco Company, Greenwich, CT

Westin Hotel, Dallas, TX

Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY

Wilson Industries, Houston, TX