Great American Nude #75 MoMA(9)
Week 4 LIPS (966 – 970) Id 966
Tom Wesselmann American, 1931-2004
Great American Nude #75, 1965
Illuminated painted molded plastic
In the early 1960s, Wesselmann inaugurated his long-running series of Great American Nudes, which place the suggestive lips and pert nipples of languidly posed women alongside American-flag motifs. In 1964, he began experimenting with vacuum-formed plastic works; he was particularly inspired by what he called “the beautiful intensity of gas station signs,” with their bas-relief surfaces—rising slightly from the picture plane—lit from within.
Wesselmann’s nudes were included in the group show Electric Art and in his first European solo exhibition, both at Gelerie Ileana Sonnabend in 1966. Sonnabend was delighted by his “new plastics” and reported that “everybody who saw them was very excited about them.” Soon she began to circulate Wesselmann’s work around Europe; a show in Italy that included some of his nudes prompted Sonnabend to send him a reassuring note: “Don’t worry, the censors haven’t been around—it’s too hot in Venice.”
Clair Wesselmann
From the Placard: MoMA Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Wesselmann
www.theartstory.org/artist-wesselmann-tom.htm
www.westword.com/arts/review-the-naked-truth-about-pop-ar...
Great American Nude #75 MoMA(9)
Week 4 LIPS (966 – 970) Id 966
Tom Wesselmann American, 1931-2004
Great American Nude #75, 1965
Illuminated painted molded plastic
In the early 1960s, Wesselmann inaugurated his long-running series of Great American Nudes, which place the suggestive lips and pert nipples of languidly posed women alongside American-flag motifs. In 1964, he began experimenting with vacuum-formed plastic works; he was particularly inspired by what he called “the beautiful intensity of gas station signs,” with their bas-relief surfaces—rising slightly from the picture plane—lit from within.
Wesselmann’s nudes were included in the group show Electric Art and in his first European solo exhibition, both at Gelerie Ileana Sonnabend in 1966. Sonnabend was delighted by his “new plastics” and reported that “everybody who saw them was very excited about them.” Soon she began to circulate Wesselmann’s work around Europe; a show in Italy that included some of his nudes prompted Sonnabend to send him a reassuring note: “Don’t worry, the censors haven’t been around—it’s too hot in Venice.”
Clair Wesselmann
From the Placard: MoMA Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Wesselmann
www.theartstory.org/artist-wesselmann-tom.htm
www.westword.com/arts/review-the-naked-truth-about-pop-ar...