Tom Wesselmann
Tom Wesselmann (b. 1931) was an American artist whose bold, highly graphic paintings, collages, sculptures, and shaped works helped define the visual language of postwar American Pop Art. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Wesselmann initially studied psychology before turning to art, eventually attending the Art Academy of Cincinnati and Cooper Union in New York. Although closely associated with Pop Art, he remained deeply engaged with the traditions of the nude, still life, and landscape, combining references to art history with the imagery and objects of contemporary American life. His celebrated Great American Nude series, begun in the early 1960s, transformed the classical reclining figure through flattened forms, saturated color, advertising imagery, and an increasingly monumental scale. Wesselmann continually expanded the physical possibilities of painting, incorporating collage, assemblage, household objects, shaped canvases, and later laser-cut metal into his work. His Standing Still Lifes enlarged ordinary objects to architectural proportions, while his later steel drawings translated the spontaneity of hand-drawn lines into freestanding and wall-mounted metal forms. Throughout his career, Wesselmann explored the tension between abstraction and representation, seeking to make figurative painting as visually immediate and powerful as the Abstract Expressionism he admired. In his final years, he returned to the female figure through his Sunset Nudes, combining expansive color, simplified forms, and a renewed dialogue with artists such as Henri Matisse. Wesselmann lived and worked in New York for more than four decades until his death in 2004.
Available Works
1968
Screenprint in colors, on white card paper Paper
Dimensions: 24 x 23.5 in. Image Dimensions: 18 x 17 7/8 in.
Edition of 150
Signed, dated and numbered by artist
1990
Screenprint
Dimensions: 58 x 66 in.
Edition of 100
Signed, dated and numbered by artist