Tom Wesselmann - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session New York Tuesday, May 16, 2023 | Phillips

Create your first list.

Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

  • Provenance

    The Artist's Studio
    David Janis Fine Art, New York
    Galerie Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf
    Galerie Enrico Navarra, New York
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Exhibited

    New York, Robert Miller Gallery, Tom Wesselmann Nudes and Abstracts, March 20–May 10, 2003, n.p. (illustrated)

  • 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.

    View More Works

120

Cross Motion II

signed and dated "Wesselmann 02" lower left; signed, titled and dated "TOM WESSELMANN CROSS MOTION 2 2000-2002" on the reverse
oil on cut-out aluminum
99 x 106 1/2 x 23 in. (251.5 x 270.5 x 58.4 cm)
Executed in 2000–2002.

Please note that this work will be included in the Tom Wesselmann Digital Corpus published by the Wildenstein Plattner Institute, and will be included in their forthcoming Tom Wesselmann Digital Catalogue Raisonné.

Estimate
$150,000 - 250,000 

Contact Specialist

Annie Dolan

Specialist, Head of Sale, Morning Session
+1 212 940 1288
adolan@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session

New York Auction 16 May 2023