Tom Wesselmann 1931-2004

By Katie Bono

Tom Wesselmann, The Great American Nude #75, 1965, painted molded plastic and lighting fixtures, 121.9 x 137.2 x 12.7 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/168947?artist_id=6318&page=1&sov_referrer=artist

Tom Wesselmann has come to be known as a forgotten Pop artist, rediscovered in recent years because of prices for Warhol and Lichtenstein paintings skyrocketing. Wesselmann is known for his electric nudes and still lifes. He is a Pop artist motivated by an ironic desire to comment on consumer culture but a genuine affinity for a simple and bright working style that had mass appeal. Because of this, Wesselmann was never fully comfortable with the Pop label. Thomas K. Wesselmann was born on February 23rd, 1931 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Wesselmann grew up in Cincinnati and was drafted in 1952 to fight in the Korean War. There he learned and subsequently taught aerial photography and drew cartoons to represent his experiences. After returning from the war, he completed a BA in psychology at the University of Cincinnati and took classes at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Wesselmann went to New York in 1956 to study at Cooper Union with the intention of becoming a cartoonist. His ambitions soon changed when he met Claire Selley; a classmate who would go on to become the inspiration and subject of works throughout Wesselmann’s career.  

Wesselmann’s early career was heavily inspired by de Kooning. His painting Portrait Collage #1 is considered to be visually and spatially aggressive (as de Kooning's works are) but Wesselmann intentionally distanced himself in terms of painting content in order to establish a unique style. Wesselmann truly came into stride with his Great American Nude series (1961-73) comprised of 101 paintings. In it, Claire is depicted in red, white, blue, and gold on increasingly large canvases. The works took on an amplified neon quality as the canvases grew and Wesselmann soon found that the greatest effect came from simple depictions. The works are characterized by a flat languid body, blonde hair, tan lines, red lips, and exaggerated nipples. Many of them contrast the simplified body with ornate backgrounds. The commercial success of this series allowed Wesselmann to make a living as an artist. He quit his job as an art and math teacher and married Claire. For a while Wesselmann was an integral part of the New York art scene - he appeared in the first major group Pop Art show as well as many European exhibitions. In the late 1960s through the early 80s he explored the intersection between painting and sculpture in his Standing Still Life paintings (1967-81) of multiple canvases shaped in the outline of the objects depicted. A number of his still lifes were massive, almost billboard-like and he would find strange objects of beauty to monumentalize such as a crumpled box of tissues in Still Life #59 (1972). 

As suddenly as Wesselmann’s success arrived, it faded. This was due to a combination of factors; primarily American museums being unwilling to show nudes and due to feminist critics in the 70s and 80s critiquing the male gaze in Wesselmann’s works. There is debate as to the character of these nudes - often Claire was depicted nude in the context of a still life. This was seen by some as a detached equation of women with mundane objects in the background. There is an obvious problematic element in reducing a woman to her breasts, lips, and pubic area. For others, it is about delight in sexuality being equated to the simple, fizzy delight in a bottle of coke. Critics have described the nudes as ‘wholesome’ or ‘domestic’ and Wesselmann for his part responded by saying he was ‘...aware of a relationship between scale and eroticism. Too big a scale and eroticism decreases - perhaps because it is too hard to relate to a 15-foot woman.” Wesselmann seems to have conceived of the nudes as a devotion to Claire rather than a degradation of her although it is impossible to know for sure. Overall, Wesselmann thrived as the art world disregarded him and characterized it as the happiest and most rewarding period of his life. He turned his drawings into steel cuts, shifting ephemeral forms into something solid, and painted a number of nudes in the intimate context of a home. In 1993, Wesselmann suffered a heart attack and it jolted him back to painting Claire, his creative source. One of his last works is Sunset with Matisse Odalisque (2003) an ode to Matisse whom he greatly admired and his wife. Tom Wesselmann died of heart complications on December 17, 2004. 

Bibliography

Conley, Kevin. “The Most Famous Pop Artist You Don’t Know.” New York Times Magazine. August 22, 2016.  

Glenn, Constance W., and Tom Williams. "Wesselmann [incorrectly Wesselman], Tom." Grove Art Online. 2003; Accessed 21 Feb. 2021. https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000091210.  

Smith, Roberta. “Tom Wesselmann, 73, Pop Artist Known for Sleek Nudes, Is Dead.” The New York Times. December 20, 2004. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/20/arts/design/tom-wesselmann-73-pop-artist-known-for-sleek-nudes-is-dead.html  

“Tom Wesselmann.” Gagosian Gallery. https://gagosian.com/artists/tom-wesselmann/