Tom Wesselmann | Monica with Tulips

The American artist Tom Wesselmann (1931 - 2004) is one of the defining artists of American Pop Art and, like Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein, had a significant influence on art in the 20th century.

He became famous in 1961 with the nude “Great American Nude,” which also became the title of an entire series of paintings. Instead of ironically, Tom Wesselmann dealt aesthetically with the cult of sex and stardom. His female nudes are staged in learned interiors: Curtains, flowers, filled fruit bowls frame the beauty, who facelessly dominates the picture with concealed but all the more visible sexual characteristics.

Sexual provocation? Satirical examination of the methods of advertising and the media? Or glorification of the same? Criticism overflowed. “Monica with Tulips” was created in 1989 as a color serigraph on sturdy cardboard. The internationally renowned art auction house Ketterer Kunst from Munich is auctioning this picture, which comes from an Austrian collection, as part of the online auction “Printastic” in February/March 2022. It is one of 12 signed and numbered artist’s copies.

More interesting works and information at www.kettererkunst.de