Tom Wesselmann

OK Harris Works of Art, New York

Private Collection (acquired from the above in 1989)

Sotheby's New York, 13 November 2003, lot 293

Acquired from the above by the present owner

“Painting, sex and humor are the most important things in my life.” – Tom Wesselmann, 1984

Frequently overlooked while he was alive, Tom Wesselmann is now widely recognized for the unique contributions he made to Pop art and the achievements he made individually as an artist. Wesselmann began his artistic career drawing cartoons for newspapers in New York City. Eventually he attended art school and began to experiment with collage, influenced by the commercialization of culture much like other Pop artists. Yet unlike other artists like Andy Warhol, Wesselmann never intended to criticize consumerism but incorporated the oversized, vibrant color planes into his oeuvre.   

The artist was particularly inspired by the energy of Willem de Kooning’s works, but felt as though he must find his own direction while channeling the same vivacity with which de Kooning worked. His breakthrough series in the 1960s, the Great American Nude series, features American patriotic colors and his wife, Claire, as his muse. This series solidified his unusual place in Pop art as he continued to focus on nudity as his subject – a traditionally historic theme that Wesselmann reframed in a contemporary context.  

In many senses Wesselmann’s achievements are comparable to those of the remarkable artist Matisse, from his utilization of radiant primary colors to successfully learning a new medium at the end of his career. As seen in the present work, Monica Sitting in Hat and Beads, (Color Variant No. 3), the artist began experimenting with a new artistic process in the early 1980s, laser-cut steel drawings. Much like Matisse introduced cut-outs into his oeuvre, Wesselmann mastered this new method and brought his ephemeral sketches to a more strong and permanent condition. This work features one of his models and assistant, Monica Serra, a recognizable character in his body of work for her black bob length hair and red lips. In this steel cut work, he reduces his subject to just the line, yet achieves a three-dimensional effect. Due to the artistic process used and subject matter, this is one of Wesselmann’s more identifiable compositions in his body of work.