BORN 1931, CINCINNATI, OHIO, USA

Initially working in the prevalent Abstract Expressionism style, influenced by Willem de Kooning, Wesselmann shifted his approach and began assembling collages of objects and images from everyday life. Like Andy Warhol, Wesselmann wanted to explore the banal elements of consumer culture. Domestic American interiors became settings for his works, which increasingly focused on female nudes enlarged, hyper-sanitized, and above all, objectified. By the mid-1960's, Wesselmann's Great American Nude series had achieved notoriety. The flat colors, clean lines and bold yet anonymous presentations of the figure, isolating and repeating female sexual organs, allude to contemporary advertising and its promotion of sex. He has continued to feature the female nude in every major series of paintings and sculpture throughout his career and is best known for these slick and erotic depictions.

MUSEUM ART COLLECTIONS: Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain, Nice, France, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, National Gallery, Berlin, Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt/Main, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, ZKM Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain, Tate Gallery, London, UK, The Contemporary Museum Honolulu, Moca Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.