Tom Wesselmann

Estate of the artist
Galerie Pascal Lansberg, Paris (acquired from the above in 2006)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

John Wilmerding, Tom Wesselmann: His Voice and Vision, New York 2008, p. 212, illustrated in color

This work is in very good condition overall. There is light evidence of handling along the edges. Under very close inspection, several pinpoint brown media accretions are visible and scattered throughout the work and minor spots of scattered circular drip accretions are visible in the lower right corner. Under Ultraviolet light, the aforementioned drip accretions fluoresce lightly but do not appear to be the result of restoration. Framed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Executed in the last decade of his career, Pat Nude (Blue) presents a masterful return to the composition and subject of the Great American Nude series Tom Wesselman had started forty years earlier. Wesselmann's Nudes are among the quintessential icons of American Pop art. Instantly recognizable, they are as emblematically representative of the movement as Andy Warhol's silkscreens of Marilyn Monroe. But despite the boldness of his style and the rebellious Pop art credentials, Wesselmann's nudes clearly show the influence of Henri Matisse in their flowing curves and simple, bright colors, as well as a constant awareness – often playful – of the long tradition of the reclining female nude, from Titian's Venuses through Manet's Olympia. The present work further references Diego Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus, with the model’s back turned towards us. Instead of Cupid and a mirror, she faces a Wesselmann painting. Like his fellow Pop artists, Wesselmann was responding to a period of increasing affluence in America, but it was not only the thriving consumer economy that spurred his interest, it was also the increasingly relaxed attitudes towards sexual relations. Wesselmann's bright billboard nudes borrow the imagery of seductive advertisements and pin-up models but are transposed to the intimacy of an indoor setting. His nudes lounge unselfconsciously in a world of bedrooms and bathrooms, often surrounded by the props and trophies of the American middle class, of which they are a part. Their blatant nudity and the intimate setting give the works a peepshow quality, but the models are deprived of the eyes to notice or challenge the viewer’s voyeurism. With stick-on smiles, which in some works were pasted onto the face as a collaged cut-out from a glossy magazine, they absorb our interest with blank indifference. If eyes are the 'windows of the soul,' then Wesselmann's eyeless American nudes have no souls to show. In the era of mass-production, even sex can be serialized and commodified. Mirroring the wealth of art historical references in Wesselmann’s oeuvre, the Great American Nude series is a progression, an artistic vein that had to be worked out and developed to its full potential. Pat Nude (Blue) stands at the culminating coda of the sequence and exemplifies Wesselmann’s historical importance within Pop art.