Tom Wesselmann - 20th c. & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session New York Thursday, July 2, 2020 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Jack Klein (gifted by the artist)
    Jan Krugier Gallery, New York
    James Corcoran Gallery, Santa Monica
    Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2011

  • 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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149

Study for Face Aquatint

signed and dated "Wesselmann 76" lower right
ballpoint pen and colored pencil on tracing paper
image 4 1/2 x 6 1/4 in. (11.4 x 15.9 cm)
sheet 9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm)

Executed in 1976.

Estimate
$25,000 - 35,000 

Sold for $22,500

Contact Specialist

John McCord
Head of Day Sale, Morning Session
New York
+1 212 940 1261

20th c. & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session

New York Auction 2 July 2020