TOM WESSELMANN

Spanning four decades, this exhibition illuminates the progression of Wesselmann’s oeuvre and the bodies of work that defined it, from the origins of his Great American Nude series to his late-career Sunset Nudes. While Wesselmann was driven by constant aesthetic and material innovation, he also had a tendency to return ceaselessly to certain themes and motifs, engaging with art history, his predecessors, and even as his own earlier output. As the artist explained: “When I made the decision in 1959 that I was not going to be an abstract painter, that I was going to be a representational painter, I had absolutely no enthusiasm about any particular subject or direction or anything. I was starting from absolute zero. And in choosing representational painting, I decided to do, as my subject matter, the history of art: I would do nudes, still lives, landscapes, interiors, portraits, etc. It didn’t take long before I began to follow my most active interests: nudes and still lifes.” 1

1. Tom Wesselmann, in Marco Livingstone, “Telling it like it is,” “Tom Wesselmann: A Retrospective Survey 1959 to 1993, Cantz Editions,” 1996, p. 10.

Courtesy Almine Rech.