Below is a clip showing some of the artist’s fantastic cut out paintings made with steel and paint.
A great clip showing some works done by various contemporary artists of the 1960s. They were to paint their ideas about a centerfold. Wesselmann’s was different in the fact he focused on only one body part, the lips.
low price range: silkscreens around $5,000
high price range: original oil for $504,000
This artist was known for painting sleek female nudes on a variety of surfaces. Among my favorite are steel cut outs of the female figure.
mediums used: oils, steel cut outs (the artist called the works steel drawings), collage, graphite pencil, oil, acrylic, serigraph, cardboard
The artist was born in 1931 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He attended the Art Academy of Cincinnati and Cooper Union in New York City. When he first went to college he was a psychology major at Hiram College. After studying art in college the artist found some success selling cartoons to 1000 Jokes and Truth magazines.
In 1957 the artist met his soon to be wife, Claire Selley, she became his friend, lover, model, friend, and for a short while became his wife. In 1958 he decided to abandon cartoons and concentrate on painting.
Was known for mixing the female form with food for a different and unique take on the pop art world.
The artist would specialize on a certain body part for much of his nude series. A sexy mouth, a firm buttock, or a red breast all painted with wonderful eye for color.
After the 1970s the artist worked on sculptures only attempting very few drawings and paintings.
The artist died in 2004, aged 73 years old in Manhattan, New York.
Has work in several museum collections such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Philadelphia Museum of Art. He is in nine collection as of the writing of this article.
The artist exerting the most influence on Wesselmann was Henri Matisse.
Founding member of the Judson Gallery in New York City. In some of his still life assemblage works he has a television set turned on in the piece. Very creative in his methods of assemblage.In the 1960s he started to paint wonderful seascapes in oils of his vacation hot spots.
The artist had many problems with his heart and died after a failed surgery to correct his heart.
I enjoy the artist’s work. For me its quite similar to Roy Lichtenstein, but more lifelike. Very clean feminine lines, the steel drawings are fantastic just for the fact no one produces a similar item in the art market now.
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