Tom Wesselmann - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session New York Wednesday, November 16, 2022 | Phillips

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale,...

New York Auction 16 November 2022

  • Provenance

    Private Collection (gifted by the artist)
    Thence by descent to 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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241

Tom Wesselmann

Two works: (i) Untitled; (ii) Study for Great American Nude #80

(i) signed and dated "Wesselmann 67" lower right
(ii) signed and dated "Wesselmann 66" lower right
pencil on paper
(i) 4 1/8 x 6 in. (10.5 x 15.2 cm)
(ii) 4 1/2 x 6 7/8 in. (11.4 x 17.5 cm)
(i) Executed in 1967.
(ii) Executed in 1966.

These works will be included in the Tom Wesselmann Digital Corpus and the forthcoming Tom Wesselmann Digital Catalogue Raisonné, both published by the Wildenstein Plattner Institute.

Estimate
$20,000 - 30,000 

Sold for $25,200

Contact Specialist

Annie Dolan
Specialist, Head of Day Sale, Morning Session
+1 212 940 1288
adolan@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session

New York Auction 16 November 2022