Tom Wesselmann
(1931-2004)
Sunset Nude with Wesselmann
Still Life No. 35.
Landscape No. 5
Still Life No. 60
Bedroom Painting No. 39
Monica Sitting with Mondrian
Monica Nude with Lichtenstein (3D)
Maquette for Smoker No. 3 (3D)
Early Collages: From the Abstract to the Figurative
When he began to create art in the 1950s, Wesselmann simultaneously explored abstract collages of found pieces of paper and the art of the nude, where the influence of Matisse is evident.
Updating the Classic Genres: Nudes, Still Lifes and American Landscapes
Wesselmann decided very early in his career to investigate and reinvent traditional genres like the nude, still life and landscape, considered moribund at the time. Beginning with collages, he incorporated all sorts of materials in his work: advertising billboards, plastic flowers, television sets and neon signs as well as reproductions of paintings he liked. The Great American Nudes, Still Lifes, Bathtub Collages and Seascapes series made his name in the eyes of his contemporaries and in the history of art.
Form, Focus, Scale
Wesselmann was interested in the issues of form and scale: the form of his works followed that of the subjects he painted. His investigations also led him to use the negative space of cut-out forms as an element in his compositions. (The series Mouths, Smokers, Bedroom Paintings and Drop-Outs.)
Lines Made Object: The Invention of the Steel Drawings
In the early 1980s, while working on the contours of the shapes in one of the Bedroom Paintings, Wesselmann conceived the idea of creating steel line drawings, as if the lines of a drawing on a piece of paper could be detached from the paper and placed directly on a wall. A consummate artist, Wesselmann created these Steel Drawings, translating into steel, a rigid material, the sketches and uncertain lines of the drawing. He invented the laser steel-cutting technique used to reinterpret landscapes, still lifes and nudes.
The Final Years: Reconciling the Abstract and the Figurative
Towards the end of his life, Wesselmann turned back to abstraction. However, he did not give up the figurative approach on which he had based his career, but executed both abstract and figurative works simultaneously with the skills acquired by tackling formal problems throughout his career. (Abstractions and Sunset Nudes series / were painted when he knew the end was near / Exhibition Detail - an installation in which he placed two of his last pieces, an abstract composition and a nude, side by side)
A master draftsman, Wesselmann archived the groups of preparatory drawings for all the various series and periods in his work. They demonstrate his tireless creativity and the extraordinary sureness of his line. Musical works by the artist can also be heard. Tom Wesselmann the painter was also a fan of country music. In fact, he was an accomplished singer-songwriter who wrote over 400 country songs.“I love country music, especially—and I’m aware that after a really special song has ended, its totality lingers, almost as specifically as a painting. Although linear and in time it does have a multi-dimensional impact that hangs in the air and in the mind in the same way. I feel a good painting is a synopsis of numerous compositional acts and reverberations and hangs suspended as though it were a just completed piece of music.”
The loans come from various leading public and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Mugrabi Collection, the Berardo Collection, the Robert B. Mayer Family Collection, Chicago, and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, as well as from the Estate of Tom Wesselmann, New York.