Tom Wesselmann Seascape (Tit) Signed Erotic Pop Art Nude Screenprint

Artist: Tom Wesselmann
Title: Seascape (Tit)
Medium: Screenprint on Museum Board
Image Size: 18" x 17 1/2"
Paper Size: 27 7/8" x 23 1/2"
Edition: 28/100
Year: 1967
Inscription: Signed lower right
Condition: Very good condition overall
Documentation: Gallery certificate of authenticity

Named without any degree of nuance, Tom Wesselmann's "Seascape (Tit)" exemplifies the artist's re-direction of the pop art movement toward the erotic. As he does in "Seascape (Tit)", Wesselmann most commonly illustrated nudes that zoomed in on a single erogenous zone such as lips, hair, or teeth. He renders the image in his iconic flat style, devoid of shadows and highlighting simplified form and shape.

Works like "Seascape (Tit)" played a prominent role in the evolution of pop art. No longer was pop art merely a commentary on consumer goods or popular culture, it was now also dissecting the methods of American marketing and entrenched societal norms. Wesselmann's nudes explore the idealized female and male bodies of the media as well as the public's fascination with the idea of sexuality. Despite this rich cultural narrative, Wesselman famously claimed he never intended his works to serve as a cultural critique. He always insisted that there was no deep meaning at the root of his art.

Tom Wesselmann's 1967 "Seascape (Tit)" is from a series of 100. It is signed, numbered, and dated on the bottom margin and comes with a gallery certificate of authenticity.

About Tom Wesselmann

One of the leading American Pop artists of the 1960s, Tom Wesselmann rejected Abstract expressionism in favor of the classical representations of the nude, still life, and landscape. Striving “to make figurative art as exciting as abstract art,” he developed a visual lexicon which is iconic and instantly recognizable. A celebration of form and shape, the work of Tom Wesselmann uniquely blended contemporary images and pop culture with classical representation. Placing an emphasis on the female nude, he reduced the human form to exaggerated flattened, simplified motifs in paintings which were boldly-colored, erotically-charged and assertive. Isolating erogenous zones, such as hair, lips, nipples or teeth, he created the ideal body for the consumer age. He also produced collages and assemblages which incorporated everyday objects and advertising ephemera.

Wesselman is best known for his 1960s series “Great American Nudes”, which featured flat female figures juxtaposed with contemporary signs of consumer culture and politics. The nudes are placed in a typical American interior, painted in an intense palette of red, blue, and other patriotic colors.

In the 1980s, the artist published his autobiography using the pseudonym Slim Stealingworth, charting the evolution of his artistic practice. His works are in the permanent collection of MoMA, the Smithsonian, the Whitney, Musee d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, the Israel Museum, The Museum of Modern Art in Japan and other institutions around the world.

Although he is often associated with Pop Art, Wesselmann never intended his works to serve as a cultural critique. He always insisted that there was no deep meaning at the root of his art.

Tom Wesselmann was born in 1931 in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. He worked in New York City for more than four decades, where he lived with his wife and three children. This is where he died in 2004 following a surgery for his heart condition. His last major series of paintings titled “Sunset Nudes” was shown after his death at the Robert Miller Gallery in New York in 2006.