Tom Wesselmann
 Tom
Wesselmann was an American
pop artist who
specialized in found art collages. Among the first of the American
Pop Artists, Tom Wesselmann is best known for his "Great American
Nudes" series in the 1960's.One
of the founding members of Pop Art, Tom Wesselmann, along with
artists like Andy Warhol,
Roy Lichtenstein and
James Rosenquist, revolutionized the way art is made. ''Great American
Nude No. 48'' (shown here) is from a series Wesselmann created in
the early 1960s, when Pop Art was still a fresh and exciting
concept. The work, part painting and part sculpture, uses an old
sink and an illuminated window as part of the composition. Initial
reaction to ''Great American Nude No. 48'' was confusion mixed with
shock. Critics didn't know what to make of the work, which resembles
a stage set more than a painting and makes sly reference to famous
works of the past through placement of decorative objects and
composition. Born on February 23, 1931 in Cincinnati, Ohio,
Wesselmann studied at the Hiram College in Ohio before studying
psychology at Cincinnati University. Tom Wesselmann was drafted into
the US Army in 1952, but spent his service years stateside. During
that time he made his first cartoons, and became interested in
pursuing a career in cartooning. After his discharge Wesselmann
completed his psychology degree in 1954, whereupon he began to study
drawing at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. He achieved some initial
success when he sold his first cartoon strips to the magazines
1000 Jokes and
True. In 1955 moved to New York
where he studied under Nicolas Marsicano at the Cooper Union School
of Art and Architecture. He earned a living by working as a
cartoonist for several journals and magazines and taught at a high
school in Brooklyn. |
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Tom  Wesselmann's
early work was influenced by
Abstract Expressionist
Willem de Kooning. However Wesselmann soon rejected action
painting. Tom Wesselmann realized he had to find his own passion
he felt he had to deny to himself all that he loved in de
Kooning, and go in as opposite a direction as possible. In
1957 Wesselmann met Claire Selley, another Cooper Union student
who was to become his friend, model, and later, his wife. 1958
was a pivotal year for Wesselmann. A landscape painting trip to
Cooper Union's Green Camp in rural New Jersey, brought him to
the realization that he could pursue painting, rather than
cartooning, as a career. After graduation Wesselmann became one
of the founding members of the Judson Gallery, along with Marc
Ratliff and Jim Dine, also from Cincinnati, who had just arrived
in New York. He and Ratliff showed a number of small collages in
a two-man exhibition at Judson Gallery. In 1959 he turned to
experimenting with small, abstract collages. Wesselmann's series
Great American Nude (begun 1961) first brought him to the
attention of the art world. After a dream concerning the phrase
"red, white, and blue", he decided to paint a
Great American
Nude in a palette limited to those colors and any colors
associated with patriotic motifs such as gold and khaki. The
series incorporated representational images with an accordingly
patriotic theme, such as American landscape photos and portraits
of founding fathers. Often these images were collaged from
magazines and discarded posters, which called for a larger
format than Wesselmann had used previously. As works began to
approach a giant scale he approached advertisers directly to
acquire billboards. |
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 The
Sidney Janis Gallery held the New Realist Exhibition in
November 1962, which included works by the American artists Jim
Dine, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, James
Rosenquist, George Segal, and Andy Warhol. Through Henry Geldzahler
Wesselmann met Alex Katz, who offered him a show at the Tanager
Gallery. Wesselmann's first solo show was held there later that
year, representing both the large and small
Great American Nude
collages. In 1962 Richard Bellamy offered him a one-man exhibition
at the Green Gallery.
Wesselmann never liked his inclusion in American Pop Art, pointing out
how he made an aesthetic use of everyday objects and not a criticism
of them as consumer objects: “I dislike labels in general and 'Pop'
in particular, especially because it overemphasizes the material
used. There does seem to be a tendency to use similar materials and
images, but the different ways they are used denies any kind of
group intention” Wesselmann had begun working on a new series of
still lifes. experimenting with assemblage as well as collage. In
Still Life #28
(shown above) he included a television set that
was turned on, “interested in the competitive demands that a TV,
with moving images and giving off light and sound, can make on
painted portions” In 1980 he published a treatise about his artistic
development under the pseudonym Slim Stealingworth. In 1983 first
'Metal Works' were produced, which were based on the artist's
drawings and sketches and which are still in the centre of the
artist's interest. In 1994 a comprehensive retrospective took place
at the Kunsthalle in Tübingen. Wesselmann died in New York on 17
December 2004. His choice of trivial motifs, their monumental
realization, reduction to stereotypes, sexual emblematic as well as
the use of bright colors made Wesselmann a co-founder of the
American Pop-Art during the 1960s. |
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