Tom Wesselmann - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale New York Tuesday, November 10, 2015 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Galerie Benden & Klimczak, Cologne
    Private Collection, Switzerland
    Christie's, London, Post-War and Contemporary Art, April 5, 2007, lot 738
    Acquired at the above sale 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.

    View More Works

247

Study for Smoker #27

1978
ballpoint pen and colored pencil on tracing paper
2 3/4 x 3 1/4 in. (7 x 8.3 cm)
Signed and dated "Wesselmann 78" lower center.

Estimate
$20,000 - 30,000 

Sold for $23,750

Contact Specialist
John McCord
Head Day Sale
New York
+1 212 940 1261

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale

New York Auction 10 November 2015 11am