Forrest Bess, Two Suns, 1947. © Forrest Bess, Linda Pace Foundation Collection, Ruby City San Antonio, Texas.

For our #CollectionPick series, we ask members of our community to reflect on specific artworks in Ruby City’s permanent collection and share why these works speak to them. This week, we spoke with artist Daniel Rios Rodriguez:

Select a work from the Ruby City Collection: 

The work I selected is by Forrest Bess, Two suns, 1947.

How would you describe it in 3 words? 
Light, light, distance.

Why does this work stand out to you?

This painting is small in scale and modest in means yet reaches for very big truths. My reading of it is about the possibility of and the reality of other suns. That our star could have a partner of sorts, a twin at a distance that shares a horizon is a complete fantasy. A fantasy about desire. 

Simultaneously the painting reminds us that our sun is just one among billions of stars. That the sun, like each one of us, is one among many. That we are not alone. In this regard, the second sun is representative of all the other stars, all the other people. 

What other artists does this piece remind you of? Why?

Giorgio Morandi, Louise Bourgeoise and early cave and rock paintings. For me, there is a conceptual and material economy among this group that aims for grand truths by unusually modest means. They are efficient and masterful expressions of universal truths.