Tom Wesselmann
(Cincinnati 1931–2004 New York)
Study for Nude Aquatint, 1978, signed, dated, titled and numbered on the reverse Wesselmann 78 78–3 and with technique and measurement, oil on canvas, 23.8 x 26.5 cm, framed
We thank Brian Kenny, Tom Wesselmann Estate, New York for his scientific assistance in cataloguing this work.
The work is listed in the archive under no. 78–3.
Provenance:
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York (until 1981)
Private Collection, North Rhine-Westphalia (by inheritance to the current owner)
Wesselmann breaks with the conventions of erotic representation by combining the clichés of mass media with genres and motifs drawn from the pictorial tradition of Western art, as well as with avant-garde techniques. The almost faceless female bodies in his work refer not only to the profoundly influential tradition of the female nude in art history, exemplified by Titian’s ‘Venus of Urbino’ and Édouard Manet’s ‘Olympia’, but also draw upon contemporary advertising campaigns and the recent history of modernism.
‘Study for Nude Aquatint’ of 1978 is the original oil painting for the subsequent series of etchings of the same title and subject. It was preceded by ‘Final Study for Kate Nude’ of 1977: shown in an alluring close-up and in the same pose, surrounded by stark, poster-like forms in vivid colours, the nude in the present work has neither eyes nor a nose – lips, nipple and pubic area alone provide all the visual stimuli required. ‘A face,’ Wesselmann explained, ‘gave the nude a personal touch and changed the whole feel of the work, made it a little like a portrait nude; and I didn’t like that. So I left out the facial features altogether from the very beginning.’ Wesselmann’s nudes cannot return the viewer’s gaze as Manet’s ‘Olympia’ still could; they simply offer themselves up for display, and nothing more. Critique or affirmation? In Wesselmann’s case, the question takes us only so far.
(Slim Stealingworth, Tom Wesselmann, New York, 1980, p. 23)
Specialist: Dr. Petra Maria Schäpers
(Cincinnati 1931–2004 New York)
Study for Nude Aquatint, 1978, signed, dated, titled and numbered on the reverse Wesselmann 78 78–3 and with technique and measurement, oil on canvas, 23.8 x 26.5 cm, framed
We thank Brian Kenny, Tom Wesselmann Estate, New York for his scientific assistance in cataloguing this work.
The work is listed in the archive under no. 78–3.
Provenance:
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York (until 1981)
Private Collection, North Rhine-Westphalia (by inheritance to the current owner)
Wesselmann breaks with the conventions of erotic representation by combining the clichés of mass media with genres and motifs drawn from the pictorial tradition of Western art, as well as with avant-garde techniques. The almost faceless female bodies in his work refer not only to the profoundly influential tradition of the female nude in art history, exemplified by Titian’s ‘Venus of Urbino’ and Édouard Manet’s ‘Olympia’, but also draw upon contemporary advertising campaigns and the recent history of modernism.
‘Study for Nude Aquatint’ of 1978 is the original oil painting for the subsequent series of etchings of the same title and subject. It was preceded by ‘Final Study for Kate Nude’ of 1977: shown in an alluring close-up and in the same pose, surrounded by stark, poster-like forms in vivid colours, the nude in the present work has neither eyes nor a nose – lips, nipple and pubic area alone provide all the visual stimuli required. ‘A face,’ Wesselmann explained, ‘gave the nude a personal touch and changed the whole feel of the work, made it a little like a portrait nude; and I didn’t like that. So I left out the facial features altogether from the very beginning.’ Wesselmann’s nudes cannot return the viewer’s gaze as Manet’s ‘Olympia’ still could; they simply offer themselves up for display, and nothing more. Critique or affirmation? In Wesselmann’s case, the question takes us only so far.
(Slim Stealingworth, Tom Wesselmann, New York, 1980, p. 23)
Specialist: Dr. Petra Maria Schäpers
