Famous for his Great American Nude series, American painter Tom Wesselmann (1931 – 2004) is widely regarded as one of the leading figures in the vanguard of American Pop Art. Alongside his contemporaries Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and James Rosenquist, he forged a new movement using the materials and images of everyday popular culture. However, unlike his two fellow Pop artists, Wesselman has never been the subject of a major retrospective exhibition in North America. This exhibition, organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, shows an artist who constantly reinvented himself long after the Pop Art movement had passed. He explored all kinds of techniques from plastic bas-relief to laser-cut steel drawings and multi-paneled shaped canvases. In his work, Wesselmann addressed the pressing issues of the art world of his time: the interpretation of the history of art; the status of the image; the relationship between art, industry and technology; and the American canon of beauty.
The exhibition has been critically acclaimed with Art Actuel writing: “Tom Wesselmann is a giant. Finally a superb exhibition that does him justice” and the Montreal Gazette talking of “Tom Wesselmann’s Pop Art: Powerful Crowded Canvases.” VMFA will be the only East Coast venue for this landmark exhibition.
Bedroom Painting #39 (1978, oil on canvas)
Art © Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
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Great American Nude #35 (1962, enamel, polymer, found materials on board)
Art © Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
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Bedroom Face with Lichtenstein (Artist Variation) (1988/1992, oil on cut-out aluminum)
Art © Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
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Blue Dance (1996, oil on cut-out aluminum)
Art © Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
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Great American Nude #21 (1961, mixed media and collage on board)
Art © Mugrabi Collection/Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
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Landscape #5 (1965, oil on canvas and Liquitex and collage on canvas)
Art © Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
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Still Life with Liz (1992, alkyd oil on cut-out steel)
Art © Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
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Smoker #1 (1967, oil on shaped canvas, in two parts)
Art © The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
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Still Life #35 (1963 ,oil and collage on canvas)
Art © Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
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Study for Great American Nude #57 (1964, pencil on paper)
Art © Mugrabi Collection/Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
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Sunset Nude, Floral Blanket (2003, oil on canvas)
Art © Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Copyright 2012