Tom Wesselmann, born Cincinnati, OH 1931-died New York City 2004 Search this
Medium:
acrylic and collage of fabric, photogravure, metal, etc. on fiberboard
Dimensions:
48 x 48 1/8 in. (122 x 122.1 cm)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1962
Gallery Label:
Still Life #12 recasts the established tradition of still-life painting in the pop language of American consumer culture. Wesselmann's tabletop scene is a landscape of temptation and bounty, combining advertising images of frosty beverages and a glistening ham with painted facsimiles of fruit and a redchecked tablecloth. The luscious images point to multiple modes of desire. The apple and breast-shaped lemon perch on the threshold of a Garden of Eden while, below, the trussed ham and two strategically placed cans of "Bustelo" coffee stand in for one of the female figures that Wesselman made famous in his Great American Nude series. The image of a camera staring toward the quasi-figure in the foreground further suggests the influence of commercial photography, including pin-up imagery, on Wesselman's art.