Events
Talk
Rachel Middleman
Erotic Art and Feminism in the 1960s
Thursday, June 22, 2023, 1pm EDT
Rachel Middleman, associate professor of art history at California State University, Chico, will give a lecture as part of the Wildenstein Plattner Institute’s webinar series Between the Two: Art and Sexuality in 1960s New York. She will explore the broad category of “erotic art” in exhibitions of the decade, discussing Pop artists including Tom Wesselmann, and consider the ways in which women artists, among them Martha Edelheit and Marjorie Strider, sought to reshape the conventions of “the nude” and upend the presumed objectivity of formalism of erotic art.
Tom Wesselmann, Female smoker with outlined knuckles, c. 1975, Tom Wesselmann Papers, The Wildenstein Plattner Institute, Inc.
Talk
Two Men from Cincinnati
Tom Wesselmann’s 1962 Debut at the Green Gallery with Susan Davidson
Tuesday, October 4, 2022, 1pm EdT
As part of the Wildenstein Plattner Institute’s webinar series Pop Places 1958–1966, curator and art historian Susan Davidson will discuss research from her upcoming monograph devoted to the stylistic development and reception of Tom Wesselmann’s most famous body of work, the Great American Nude series (1961–69/73), many of which were shown at the Green Gallery in New York in 1962. Each of these midday talks is dedicated to a different key New York exhibition space of the Pop era from an array of sites where artists, gallerists, and critics collectively worked through and developed the forms, ideas, and challenges that would later become identified with the Pop art movement.
Tom Wesselmann, Great American Nude #34, 1962 © The Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by ARS/VAGA, New York
Fundraiser
Artist Plate Project 2021
Coalition for the Homeless
Launching November 16, 2021, 10am est
Limited-edition bone china plates produced by Prospect and featuring artwork by more than forty artists—including Virgil Abloh, Urs Fischer, Helen Frankenthaler, Alex Israel, Ewa Juszkiewicz, Ed Ruscha, Sarah Sze, Tom Wesselmann, Jonas Wood, and Christopher Wool—will be sold through Artware Editions to raise funds for the Coalition’s lifesaving programs. The funds raised by the sale of the plates will provide food, crisis services, housing, and other critical aid to thousands of people experiencing homelessness and instability. The purchase of one plate can feed one hundred homeless and hungry New Yorkers.
Jonas Wood, Clipping Plate, 2021 © Jonas Wood
In Conversation
Discovering Wesselmann
Wednesday, December 16, 2020, 6pm EST
Join the Wildenstein Plattner Institute (WPI) for a conversation on how archival research intersects with and supports the development of catalogues raisonnés. Samantha Rowe, a digital archivist and research associate at WPI, and Huffa Frobes-Cross, project manager for the Tom Wesselmann catalogue raisonné to be published by WPI, will discuss how their roles can both prove integral to each other’s discoveries and diverge completely. The event will also offer an exclusive look at the Tom Wesselmann Papers sourced from the artist’s archives. To join, register at zoom.us.
Tom Wesselmann, Still Life #38, 1964 © The Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by ARS/VAGA, New York
Panel Discussion
The Legacy of Tom Wesselmann
Estate Management and Catalogue Raisonné
Thursday, November 5, 2020, 5pm est
As part of Gagosian’s Building a Legacy program, Jeffrey Sturges, director of exhibitions for the Estate of Tom Wesselmann; Susan Davidson, curator and art historian; Huffa Frobes-Cross, Tom Wesselmann catalogue raisonné project manager at the Wildenstein Plattner Institute; and Rani Singh, director of special projects at Gagosian, will discuss the steps involved in transitioning from a working artist’s studio to an estate. They will also speak about the decision to publish the catalogue raisonné as a digital-only volume, as well as the forthcoming printed monograph on the Great American Nudes, edited by Davidson and with an illustrated chronology by Lauren Mahony. To join, register at zoom.us.
Tom Wesselmann, Great American Nude #5, 1961 © The Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by ARS/VAGA, New York
Online Reading
Tom Wesselmann
Standing Still Lifes
Tom Wesselmann: Standing Still Lifes is available for online reading from August 30 through September 28 as part of the From the Library series. The publication features nine monumental works made by Wesselmann between 1967 and 1981, shown together for the first time as a complete series in 2018 at Gagosian, 555 West 24th Street, New York. Each large-scale work comprises multiple canvases, both hanging and standing, shaped according to the outlines of the commonplace objects that they depict. The catalogue features a text by Ara H. Merjian, a conversation between Michael Craig-Martin and Jeffrey Sturges, and a chronology by Lauren Mahony.
Tom Wesselmann: Standing Still Lifes (New York: Gagosian, 2018)
Announcements
Upcoming Publication
Tom Wesselmann
Digital Catalogue Raisonné
The Wildenstein Plattner Institute, in partnership with the Estate of Tom Wesselmann, announces the preparation of a digital catalogue raisonné of the works of Tom Wesselmann. The first installment will be published on the Great American Nudes series. In advance of publication, a publicly available searchable database of all works recorded by the artist’s Estate, which incorporates ongoing research for the forthcoming catalogue raisonné, called the Tom Wesselmann Digital Corpus, has been launched.
Parallel with this effort, the Estate of Tom Wesselmann, Almine Rech, and Gagosian are also pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of Tom Wesselmann: The Great American Nudes. Edited by Susan Davidson, the monograph will be the first comprehensive publication dedicated to Wesselmann’s most famous body of work, made between 1961 and 1973. The book will include full color reproductions of each artwork, as well as related drawings, studies, and relevant works from associated series.
For collectors to confirm that a work in their possession will be included in the digital catalogue raisonné, please visit wpi.art to begin the submission process.
Tom Wesselmann, Great American Nude #1, 1961 © The Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by ARS/VAGA, New York
Museum Exhibitions
On View
The Whitney’s Collection
Selections from 1900 to 1965
Opened June 28, 2019
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
whitney.org
This exhibition of more than 120 works, drawn entirely from the Whitney’s collection, is inspired by the founding history of the museum. The Whitney was established in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney to champion the work of living American artists. A sculptor and a patron, Whitney recognized both the importance of contemporary American art and the need to support the artists who made it. The collection she assembled foregrounds how artists uniquely reveal the complexity and beauty of American life. Work by Jay DeFeo, Willem de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein, Man Ray, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselmann is included.
Installation view, The Whitney’s Collection: Selections from 1900 to 1965, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 28, 2019–May 2022. Artwork, left to right: © 2020 The Jay DeFeo Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Norman Lewis; © 2020 The Franz Kline Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Ron Amstutz
Closed
El eco de Picasso
October 2, 2023–March 30, 2024
Museo Picasso Málaga, Spain
museopicassomalaga.org
Organized as part of Picasso Celebration 1973–2023, a series of international exhibitions and events commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Pablo Picasso’s death, The Echo of Picasso focuses on his influence on twentieth-century art. The exhibition places Picasso’s practice in dialogue with work by more than fifty artists, including Francis Bacon, Georg Baselitz, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Willem de Kooning, Thomas Houseago, Ewa Juszkiewicz, Richard Prince, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Cy Twombly, Tom Wesselmann, and Franz West.
Installation view, El eco de Picasso, Museo Picasso Málaga, Spain, October 2, 2023–March 30, 2024. Artwork, left to right: © Rebecca Warren, © Richard Prince. Photo: Pablo Asenjo, courtesy Museo Picasso Málaga
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Order / Reorder
Experiments with Collections
June 17, 2022–September 3, 2023
Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York
www.hrm.org
Order / Reorder: Experiments with Collections examines ways to look at American art that consider expressions of American identity from new perspectives. The works on view range across genres: portraiture, figural studies, still life, landscape, and abstraction. Rather than following a chronological structure, the installation aims to spark discussion through juxtaposing styles, outlooks, and eras. Work by Derrick Adams and Tom Wesselmann is included.
Derrick Adams, Self-Portrait on Float, 2019, Hudson River Museum © Derrick Adams Studio/Tandem Press, Madison, Wisconsin
Closed
Tom Wesselmann
After Matisse
February 24–May 29, 2023
Musée Matisse, Nice, France
www.musee-matisse-nice.org
This exhibition explores the many ways in which Tom Wesselmann expressed his admiration for Henri Matisse over the course of his career, from his first collages in 1959 to his last paintings, the Sunset Nudes series of the 2000s. Through a selection of forty-one works, the show investigates Wesselmann’s creative processes in the studio and brings together four significant series that testify to Matisse’s influence on the Pop artist: collages, Great American Nudes, Steel Drawings, and Sunset Nudes.
Tom Wesselmann, Man Ray at the Dance, 2004 © The Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by ARS/VAGA, New York. Photo: © Jeffrey Sturges
Closed
The Paradox of Stillness
Art, Object, and Performance
May 15–August 8, 2021
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
walkerart.org
Featuring works from the early twentieth century to today, The Paradox of Stillness examines the notion of stillness as both a performative and a visual gesture. More than sixty-five artists present object-based art, pictures, and actions staged by live performers to test the boundaries between stillness and motion, mortality and aliveness, and the still life and the living picture. Work by Urs Fischer, Piero Manzoni, Tom Wesselmann, and Franz West is included.
Urs Fischer, Untitled, 2003 © Urs Fischer
Closed
Amuse-Bouche
The Taste of Art
February 19–July 26, 2020
Museum Tinguely, Basel
www.tinguely.ch
Amuse-Bouche: The Taste of Art presents works—some with a participatory element—by more than forty-five international artists from the Baroque period to the present that explore taste as a dimension of aesthetic perception. Breaking with the usual museum practice of appealing primarily to the sense of sight, works in the exhibition offer art historical and phenomenological encounters with the sense of taste. Work by Urs Fischer, Damien Hirst, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselmann is included.
Installation view, Amuse-Bouche: The Taste of Art, Museum Tinguely, Basel, February 19–July 26, 2020. Artwork, left to right: © Opavivará!; © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2020. Photo: Gina Folly © 2020 Museum Tinguely, Basel
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Andy Warhol bis Cindy Sherman
Amerikanische Kunst aus der Albertina
November 19, 2019–March 29, 2020
Schlossmuseum Linz, Austria
www.landesmuseum.at
Europe’s view of America is influenced by images of the entertainment industry: from film and television to advertising and newspapers. No other nation has placed so much reliance upon the power and impact of pictures and symbols as the US. With more than two hundred works of American art from 1960 to the present day, this large-scale exhibition, whose title translates to Andy Warhol to Cindy Sherman: American Art from the Albertina Museum, aims to illustrate how much our perceptions of truth and reality, facts and fake news, owe to America’s visual culture. Work by Gregory Crewdson, Roy Lichtenstein, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselmann is included.
Cindy Sherman, Untitled (#112), 2003 © Cindy Sherman
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Tom Wesselmann
La promesse du bonheur
June 29, 2018–January 6, 2019
Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Villa Paloma
www.nmnm.mc
This focused survey explores a number of specific aspects of Tom Wesselmann’s work and production, including their relationship to postwar economic abundance, Victorian and post-Victorian sexuality, and questions of female agency.
Tom Wesselmann, Seascape #10, 1966 © The Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by ARS/VAGA, New York
Closed
Dioramas
June 14–September 10, 2017
Palais de Tokyo, Paris
www.palaisdetokyo.com
This exhibition explores the diorama as an unexpected source of inspiration for contemporary art. At the intersection of art, cinema, and theater, this cross-disciplinary exhibition recontextualizes the diorama with a renewed approach to the history of spectatorship, including the influence of science and technology on popular culture, fun fairs, and exhibitions. Work by Duane Hanson, Anselm Kiefer, Tatiana Trouvé, Jeff Wall, and Tom Wesselmann is included.
Tatiana Trouvé, Untitled, 2007 © ADAGP, Paris 2017. Photo: Daniele Resini
Closed
LOVE
L’arte contemporanea incontra l’amore
March 17–July 23, 2017
Società per la Belle Arti Esposizione Permanente, Milan
www.lapermanente.it
For LOVE. L’arte contemporanea incontra l’amore, curator Danilo Eccher chose thirty-nine works by artists including Francesco Vezzoli, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselmann that depict love from their point of view. Visitors are invited to leave their testimony regarding the exhibition, creating a group recollection that will grow day by day.
Tom Wesselmann, Smoker #3 (3-D), 2003 © The Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by VAGA, New York
Closed
Matisse and American Art
February 5–June 18, 2017
Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey
www.montclairartmuseum.org
Curated by Gail Stavitsky, this exhibition focuses on the French master’s profound impact on the development of American modern art from 1907 to the present. Nineteen works by Matisse are juxtaposed with forty-four works by American artists, including Helen Frankenthaler, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselmann.
Andy Warhol, Woman in Blue (After Matisse), 1985 © 2017 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York
Closed
The American Dream
Pop to the Present
March 9–June 18, 2017
British Museum, London
americandreamexhibition.org
This exhibition traces the past six decades of American history through prints of unprecedented scale and ambition. Starting with the explosion of Pop art in the 1960s, the show includes works by many of America’s most celebrated artists. Works by Helen Frankenthaler, Roy Lichtenstein, Bruce Nauman, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, and Tom Wesselmann are on view.
Ed Ruscha, Made in California, 1971 © Ed Ruscha