Tom Wesselmann - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale London Monday, June 25, 2018 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Sidney Janis Gallery, New York
    Galerie HM, Brussels (acquired from the above in May 1975)
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • 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

141

Sketch from "Big Brown Nude"

signed and inscribed 'Wesselmann D7524' lower edge
ballpoint pen and coloured pencil on tracing paper
16.3 x 23.8 cm (6 3/8 x 9 3/8 in.)
Executed in 1975.

Estimate
£30,000 - 50,000 

Sold for £37,500

Contact Specialist
Tamila Kerimova
Specialist, Head of Day Sale
+ 44 20 7318 4065
tkerimova@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale

London Auction 26 June 2018