Artists & Works

STYLE: POP ART

Tom Wesselmann 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. 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 brought him fame and notoriety as one of the primary American Pop artists. In the seventies, Wesselmann made a series of smoker mouths; enormous, partially free-standing still-lifes moved into sculptural space, and finally, discrete sculptures of sheet metal. An important retrospective of Wesselmann’s work was held in Japan in 1993–4, and his work is found in most significant museum collections of contemporary art, including the Museum of Modern Art, The Guggenheim, the Tate, and many more.

This study is a smaller version of the major series of smoker works Wesselmann made during the seventies. Wesselmann often went back and forth between small collages and larger paintings, mixed media works, and sculptures.

CRITICAL EXCERPTS

Richard Polsky, artnet.com,12/27/00
“During the 1960s, Wesselmann was a Pop artist in good standing. He was represented by Sidney Janis, which at the time was considered prestigious. While his work wasn't as important as Warhol's or Lichtenstein's (or Oldenburg's or Rosenquist's, for that matter), it certainly was a cut above that of Mel Ramos and Robert Indiana.
Wesselmann deserves credit for being one of the few artists of that era to tackle traditional art history themes -- the nude and the still life. Wesselmann's series of "Great American Nudes" was the idealized version of the American male dream girl. His women were often blondes with large breasts who struck suggestive poses.
For this reason, Wesselmann's work has never been particularly popular with female collectors. In fact, there have been many instances of married couples electing not to buy the work because the wife didn't want to live with "sexist" imagery. Logically, this has hurt the potential number of applicants for the artist's work.
Wesselmann's early still life paintings also had a Pop sensibility, especially when he incorporated found objects and collaged them onto canvas. A typical still life might include a metal trade sign of a 7-Up bottle or a magazine cut-out of a piece of fruit. The still lifes are solid paintings but lack the visual bite of the Great American Nudes. Predictably, they also sell for less money.
This raises the question of what the potential market is for early Wesselmanns. The answer is hard to come by. On the one hand, his work represents a bona fide buying opportunity. As genuine works of Pop art become increasingly scarce, he's still one of the few bargains in the market place. For as little as $35,000 one can buy a small 1960s still life (measuring about 10 by 12 in.). For an additional $20,000 (at least), one can obtain a Great American Nude.
Wesselmann did a fair number of these small paintings, which served as studies for the major pictures but were also finished works in their own right. There is also a third category of early paintings, the "Smokers." These works often portray a woman's red lips with a dangling cigarette and a plume of twisting smoke. The "Smokers" are probably a poor investment, given our country's growing anti-smoking sentiment. Still, they are attractive paintings.”