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.
circa 1967 graphite on paper 11 x 8 1/2 in. (27.9 x 21.6 cm.) Signed and dated "Wesselmann ca 67" along the lower edge; titled "Working Drawing for GAN 98" on the reverse. This work is registered in the archives of the Tom Wesselmann Estate under number D105.
Estimate $8,000 - 10,000
Contact Specialist Benjamin Godsill
Head of Sale
bgodsill@phillips.com +1 212 940 1260