Tom Wesselmann: Collages 1959-1964
David Zwirner is pleased to present an exhibition of collages by American artist Tom Wesselmann at the gallery鈥檚 London location. Organized in collaboration with The Estate of Tom Wesselmann, the exhibition will present over 30 works produced between 1959 and 1964鈥攁 significant period in the artist鈥檚 early career that presaged his emergence as a leading figure of Pop Art.
Since the mid-1960s, Wesselmann鈥檚 oeuvre has been synonymous with the bold, graphic, and large-scale imagery of Pop Art. On view at the gallery, his intimate, handwrought collages of the late 1950s and early 1960s reveal the germination of his iconic style, and attest to his lifelong interest in depicting still lifes, interiors, landscapes, and female nudes.
Wesselmann first explored the medium of collage in 1959, during his final year as an art student at The Cooper Union School of Art, New York, and it remained central to his practice throughout the early 1960s. Part of a generation of artists that reacted against the dominant action-oriented, gestural style of Abstract Expressionism, Wesselmann took interest in quotidian, figurative, and popular subject matter, as well as the representational and graphic qualities afforded by collage. Employing found materials culled from urban detritus and popular media such as postcards, wallpaper, stickers, and fabric, Wesselmann executed several discrete but related series of collages that variously depict figures (both anonymous and known), interiors, and still lifes. Formally, the works relate to early modernist collage and assemblage techniques and practices, and in their subject matter make numerous art historical references to the works of Henri Matisse, Edgar Degas, Wassily Kandinsky, and Hans Memling, among other artists. In his later collages, representations of contemporary life and consumer goods become more readily apparent, prefiguring the large-scale Pop Art paintings for which Wesselmann became recognized.
Among the works on view will be several significant examples of his 鈥淧ortrait Collages,鈥� 1959-1960, the first group of collages executed by the artist. Characterized by depictions of one or two female figures seated in interior spaces and rendered in diverse materials including leaves, wallpaper, paint, and wood, the series makes frequent allusions to works by Old Masters, as well as contemporary artists, such as Willem de Kooning and other Abstract Expressionists. These first iterations of collage, in particular, are marked by dynamic patterning, idiosyncratic material juxtapositions, flattened forms, and rich, vibrant color that would remain consistent features of his work throughout his career.
Also included in the exhibition are a number of works from Wesselmann鈥檚 鈥淟ittle Great American Nudes鈥� series, a pivotal body of work begun in 1961 that led directly to the development of his larger-scale 鈥淕reat American Nudes,鈥� 1961-1973, for which he gained art-world acclaim, and of which the first example, Great American Nude #1, will be on view.
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David Zwirner is pleased to present an exhibition of collages by American artist Tom Wesselmann at the gallery鈥檚 London location. Organized in collaboration with The Estate of Tom Wesselmann, the exhibition will present over 30 works produced between 1959 and 1964鈥攁 significant period in the artist鈥檚 early career that presaged his emergence as a leading figure of Pop Art.
Since the mid-1960s, Wesselmann鈥檚 oeuvre has been synonymous with the bold, graphic, and large-scale imagery of Pop Art. On view at the gallery, his intimate, handwrought collages of the late 1950s and early 1960s reveal the germination of his iconic style, and attest to his lifelong interest in depicting still lifes, interiors, landscapes, and female nudes.
Wesselmann first explored the medium of collage in 1959, during his final year as an art student at The Cooper Union School of Art, New York, and it remained central to his practice throughout the early 1960s. Part of a generation of artists that reacted against the dominant action-oriented, gestural style of Abstract Expressionism, Wesselmann took interest in quotidian, figurative, and popular subject matter, as well as the representational and graphic qualities afforded by collage. Employing found materials culled from urban detritus and popular media such as postcards, wallpaper, stickers, and fabric, Wesselmann executed several discrete but related series of collages that variously depict figures (both anonymous and known), interiors, and still lifes. Formally, the works relate to early modernist collage and assemblage techniques and practices, and in their subject matter make numerous art historical references to the works of Henri Matisse, Edgar Degas, Wassily Kandinsky, and Hans Memling, among other artists. In his later collages, representations of contemporary life and consumer goods become more readily apparent, prefiguring the large-scale Pop Art paintings for which Wesselmann became recognized.
Among the works on view will be several significant examples of his 鈥淧ortrait Collages,鈥� 1959-1960, the first group of collages executed by the artist. Characterized by depictions of one or two female figures seated in interior spaces and rendered in diverse materials including leaves, wallpaper, paint, and wood, the series makes frequent allusions to works by Old Masters, as well as contemporary artists, such as Willem de Kooning and other Abstract Expressionists. These first iterations of collage, in particular, are marked by dynamic patterning, idiosyncratic material juxtapositions, flattened forms, and rich, vibrant color that would remain consistent features of his work throughout his career.
Also included in the exhibition are a number of works from Wesselmann鈥檚 鈥淟ittle Great American Nudes鈥� series, a pivotal body of work begun in 1961 that led directly to the development of his larger-scale 鈥淕reat American Nudes,鈥� 1961-1973, for which he gained art-world acclaim, and of which the first example, Great American Nude #1, will be on view.
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