Description

Tom Wesselmann ‘Monica standing nude’ | Original hand signed study | Provenance

• Original black and red pencil study from 1985
• Hand Signed on medium weight small sketchbook paper

This drawing is a rough sketch for his ‘Monica standing nude’ steel painting of 1985.

• Measuring approx 8.6″ x 6″ (21,5 cm x 15 cm)

Attention: drawing has a dented crease in the left bottom corner.

Tom Wesselmann ‘Monica standing nude’ was bought in 1999 at an official Auction and copy of the original invoice will be delivered to the new buyer.

• Provenance : Perls Gallery Madison Ave New York

Sold by OK Harris Gallery, this item has equally a Certificate of Authenticity Tag issued by the Fine Art Registry Association of America. The exact number will be transmitted to the new buyer as well as the proof of new ownership.

INFORMATION ON TOM WESSELMANN

Tom Wesselmann (February 23, 1931, Cincinnati – December 17, 2004) was an American artist associated with the Pop art movement who worked in painting, collage and sculpture.

His works in the years 1965 to 1990: Great American Nude #53 up to Great American Nude #100, show an accentuated, more explicit, sensuality, as though celebrating the rediscovered sexual fulfilment of his new relationship. He carried on working on his landscapes, but also made the Great American Nude #82, reworking the nude in a third dimension not defined by drawn lines but by medium: molded plexiglass modeled on the female figure, then painted. His compositional focus also became more daring, narrowing down to isolate a single detail: the Mouth series began in 1965, his Seascapes began the following year. Two other new subjects also appeared: Bedroom Painting , and Smoker Study, the latter of which developed from observation of his model for the Mouth series. The Smoker Study series of works would become one of the most recurrent themes in the 1970s.

The abstract works display firmer lines and a chromatic range that favored primary colors. Wesselmann acknowledged the influence of Mondrian by choosing titles that recall the earlier painter’s works: New York City Beauty (2001). In these years the influence of Matisse diminished the border between Wesselmann’s figurative and abstract styles. In 1960 Wesselmann had been able to view the works of the French master in person at the MoMA’s Gouaches Découpées (Gouache Cut-outs) exhibition, and forty years later paid homage in his Sunset Nudes series. In Sunset Nude with Matisse, 2002, he inserted Matisse’s painting La Blouse Roumaine (1939–1940). Wesselmann also derived works from Matisse’s cut-outs: Blue Nude (2000), initiated a series of blue nude reliefs sculpted in shaped aluminum.

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