-
X
Forgot Password

Forgot Password?
(Enter your email below.)


Cancel

Not a member?
Create your account today!

Search from over 100,000 items available at auction now


Advanced
Search
Learn how to bid
  • Add this artist to my Artfact Advisor™ Alerts

Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004)

Aliases: Tom Wesselman

Professions: Painter; Sculptor

  • Click to See Larger Size Click to See Lot Detail
    - Tom Wesselmann , 1931-2004 Great American Nude No. 48 oil and collage on canvas, acrylic and collage on board, enameled radiator and assemblage (including window illumination)

    - Tom Wesselmann , 1931-2004 Great American Nude No. 48 oil and collage on canvas, acrylic and collage on board, enameled radiator and assemblage (including window illumination)

  • Click to See Larger Size Click to See Lot Detail
    Smoker #9

    Smoker #9

  • Click to See Larger Size Click to See Lot Detail
    l - Tom Wesselmann , Smoker # 17

    l - Tom Wesselmann , Smoker # 17

  • Click to See Larger Size Click to See Lot Detail
    Tom Wesselmann , Great American Nude #21 Board, Oil

    Tom Wesselmann , Great American Nude #21 Board, Oil

Tom Wesselmann Biography

(b Cincinnati, OH, 23 Feb 1931). American painter, sculptor and printmaker. He planned to become a cartoonist until his final year at the Cooper Union in New York, where he studied from 1956 to 1959 and was encouraged to become a painter. The powerful work of Willem de Kooning provided both inspiration and inhibition as he attempted to find a new direction centred around a tangible subject. Choosing the figure he began to make small collages of torn paper and found materials, as in the Little Great American Nudes of 1961–2; these culminated in large, aggressive compositions such as Great American Nude #3 (1961; Washington, DC, Hirshhorn). These and giant still-lifes composed of common household objects and collage elements culled from popular advertising images, such as Still Life #20 (1962; Buffalo, NY, Albright-Knox A.G.), brought him fame and notoriety as a founder of American POP ART. In the late 1960s an increasingly dominant eroticism emerged in works such as Bedroom Painting #13 (1969; Berlin, Neue N.G.), with its more literal but still intense colours and tight, formal composition. The pictorial elements, exaggerated in their arabesque forms and arbitrary colouring, became significantly larger in scale in his works of the 1970s, such as a series of Smoker mouths; enormous, partially free-standing still-lifes moved into sculptural space, and finally became discrete sculptures of sheet metal. In the 1980s he returned to works for the wall with cut-out steel or aluminium drawings such as Viviènne Doodle (3D) (1986; see 1987 exh. cat., no. 1), which replicate his familiar, graceful line in enamel on cut-out metal. He was also an innovative printmaker, adapting his imagery to lithographs, screenprints, aquatints and multiples in relief. An important retrospective of his work was held in Japan in 1993–4.

Grove Art excerpts - Electronic ©2003, Oxford Art Online

Back to the Top

Tom Wesselmann Related Content

  • Auction Houses

    Genres/Artists

Back to the Top

Tom Wesselmann at Auction Now

View all Tom Wesselmann at Auction Now

Back to the Top

Tom Wesselmann Sold at AuctionView all Tom Wesselmann Sold at Auction

Back to the Top

Need Full Access to Our Artist Database?

Log in or subscribe for access to: artist alerts, price estimate, auction house name, auction title, location & date, and more...

Subscribe Now

Answer your questions about your favorite artist's works and their value or bid online for your chance to own a piece by Tom Wesselmann. Artfact's Tom Wesselmann artist profile page includes: Tom Wesselmann biographical information, work by Tom Wesselmann available at auction now, and prices realized for Tom Wesselmann recently sold at auction.

  • Sign Up For Free Email Updates

Thank you!
Why not register for a
FREE account today?