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Tom Wesselmann's Birthday Suit

Artsy Editorial
Feb 23, 2013 5:19PM
Monica Sitting with Mondrian, 1989
Alan Cristea Gallery

If there were ever an occasion for a birthday suit, it would be February 23rd, the birthday of Tom Wesselmann, the Pop artist known for his Great American Nudes. “I don’t depict nudes from any sociological, cultural, or emotional intention,” he once said. “The nude, I feel, is a good way to be aggressive, figuratively. I want to stir up intensive, explosive reactions in the viewers.”

His mission has proved successful. Wesselmann is internationally renowned for his provocative, uncensored, yet oddly unobtrusive works. “To me it’s just nudity,” he once insisted. “In not one single painting have I done...anything salacious. I maybe had it in my mind, and it's implied, but...it’s all just nudity.”

Artsy Editorial