212
Tom Wesselmann
Bedroom Blonde Doodle (Variation)
- Estimate
- £180,000 - 250,000‡
£237,000
Lot Details
enamel on cut-out aluminium
incised with the artist's signature and dated 'Wesselmann '89' on the reverse
155.2 x 192.4 cm (61 1/8 x 75 3/4 in.)
Executed in 1989.
Specialist
Full-Cataloguing
Catalogue Essay
‘My original idea, that began the cut-outs, was to preserve the process and immediacy of my drawings from life, complete with the false lines and errors, and realise them in steel. It was as though the lines had just been miraculously drawn in steel. At the same time, I pursued another idea – to make tiny, very fast doodles, which I would then enlarge in cut-out metal, preserving the feel and spontaneity of the tiny sketch…' - Tom Wesselmann
Provenance
Exhibited
Tom Wesselmann
American | B. 1931 D. 2004As a former cartoonist and leading figure of the Pop Art movement, Tom Wesselmann spent many years of his life repurposing popular imagery to produce small to large-scale works that burst with color. Active at a time when artists were moving away from the realism of figurative painting and growing increasingly interested in abstraction, Wesselmann opted for an antithetical approach: He took elements of city life that were both sensual and practical and represented them in a way that mirrored Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol's own methodologies.Wesselmann considered pop culture objects as exclusively visual elements and incorporated them in his works as pure containers of bold color. This color palette became the foundation for his now-iconic suggestive figurative canvases, often depicting reclining nudes or women's lips balancing a cigarette.
Browse Artist