Provenance
The Estate of the Tom Wesselmann
Private Collection, Munich
NY Projects, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Artist Biography
Tom Wesselmann
American • 1931 - 2004
As a former cartoonist and leading figure of the Pop Art movement, Tom Wesselmann spent many years of his life repurposing popular imagery to produce small to large-scale works that burst with color. Active at a time when artists were moving away from the realism of figurative painting and growing increasingly interested in abstraction, Wesselmann opted for an antithetical approach: He took elements of city life that were both sensual and practical and represented them in a way that mirrored Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol's own methodologies.
Wesselmann considered pop culture objects as exclusively visual elements and incorporated them in his works as pure containers of bold color. This color palette became the foundation for his now-iconic suggestive figurative canvases, often depicting reclining nudes or women's lips balancing a cigarette.
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38

Tom Wesselmann

Nude Painting Print

signed, numbered and dated "38/50 Wesselmann 80" lower right
oil on canvas
24 x 25 1/2 in. (61 x 64.8 cm.)
Painted in 1980, this work is number 38 from a series of 50 identical paintings of which only 41 were executed.

Estimate
$30,000 - 50,000

Sold for $56,250

Contact Specialist
Sam Mansour
Associate Specialist, Head of New Now Sale
New York
+1 212 940 1219
smansour@phillips.com

New Now

New York Auction 27 February 2019