Tom Wesselmann - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session New York Thursday, June 24, 2021 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Lane Wesselmann (gifted from the artist in 1983)
    Sotheby's, New York, November 1, 1984, lot 223
    Private Collection, New York
    Anthony Ralph Gallery, New York
    Donald Morris Gallery, Michigan
    Private Collection, Michigan (acquired from the above)
    Thence by descent to the present owner

  • Exhibited

    New York, Anthony Ralph Gallery, 20th Century Works on Paper, October 21–November 20, 1986

  • Artist Biography

    Tom Wesselmann

    American • 1931 - 2004

    As 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.

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Property from an Important Midwestern Estate

241

Study for Big Brown Nude

signed and dated "Wesselmann 1971" upper right; dedicated "Gift Lane Wesselmann 1983" on the reverse
acrylic on archival rag mat
image 6 x 8 3/4 in. (15.2 x 22.2 cm)
mat 8 5/8 x 11 3/4 in. (21.9 x 29.8 cm)

Executed in 1971.

Estimate
$60,000 - 80,000 

Sold for $69,300

Contact Specialist

John McCord
Head of Day Sale, Morning Session
New York
+1 212 940 1261

jmccord@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session

New York Auction 24 June 2021