Biographies

Born in Cincinnati Wesselman occupies a separate place in the history of American Pop Art.

After studying at the Heram College and the University of Cincinnati he then joined the Academy of the Fine Arts of Cincinnati and then the Cooper Union in New York and became one of the first artists to tackle Pop Art.

He took part in many exhibitions in the U.S and abroad notably at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1962, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and at the Washington Gallery of Art in 1963, at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, the Moderna Museet of Stockholm, the Museum of Modern Art, New York and at the Whitney Museum in 1964.

At the start he produced Pop Art assemblages with a Dada collage technique mixing images of daily life such as bottles of whisky, cigarette packs or coffee boxes.

These collages had not the impact shown by objects integrated in works by Rauschenberg, Oldenburg or Warhol but Wesselman found his own style with his Great American Nudes.

Wesselman also painted various subjects based on advertising images of our modern world such as a landscape with a Wolkswagen car or a fridge. He also moulded plastic materials giving volume to his nudes, certain of which were wearing stockings. Many of his nudes are sun-tanned with white markings left by their bras or panties.