Born Burgess Franklin Collins in Long Beach, California, Jess was a key figure in the post–World War II Bay Area art scene. In 1949, after abandoning on moral grounds his career as a radiochemist—which included work for
the Manhattan Project that developed the first atomic bombs—he studied at the California School of Fine Arts (later the San Francisco Art Institute). Breaking with his conservative family, he began referring to himself as “Jess,” and dedicated himself to making art.

Pulsating with vivid color and dynamic energy, Jess’s "Boy Party" celebrates the LGBTQ counterculture that helped to shape the artistic landscape of postwar San Francisco. Jess and his life partner, the poet Robert Duncan, were influential figures within this community, and Duncan is depicted dancing at the lower right of this bacchanal of sexual liberation. The luminous pigments and softened forms reflect Jess’s admiration for the French Nabis-school painters Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard.