Tom Wesselmann

One of the first and most important exponents of the Pop art movement, Tom Wesselmann was a key contributor to the 1960s shift that made New York the new centre of the art world.  His work can be viewed in most major museums, and is in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Tate Gallery, London, United Kingdom, and the Walker Institute, Minneapolis.  His stylized approach to the female nude was wholly original as was his playful and often satirical collage work.  His work is recognized internationally and is acknowledged as shaping the pop art in the 1960s alongside Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Claes Oldenburg. 

Though initially inspired by the abstract expressionist movement that was sweeping New York at that time, Wesselmann’s style would evolve into something dramatically different.  He experimented with collage, using advertising images of everyday American objects to create environments in which he placed heavily stylized female nudes.  Though primarily recognized for his paintings and collages, Wesselmann was prolific, like his pop culture colleagues; in sculpture, lithographs, screen prints, aquatints, and multiples in relief.  His influences on pop culture have impacted contemporary art the world over, securing him a position in the annals of art history.