tom wesselmann
In the early 1960s, pop artist Tom Wesselmann began a series of monumen-
American, 1931–2004
tal paintings of blonde nudes languorously posed in interior, nonspecific
Mouth #11
settings. As the series progressed, he began to zero in on the nude alone,
1967
and finally, almost fetishistically, on individual details of her body—a foot,
Oil on canvas
a breast, her mouth. Even though little remained of the overall female fig-
68 × 152 in. ( 17 2.7 × 386.1 cm) Foundation for the Arts Collection, Mr. and Mrs. Edward S. Marcus Fund, 1968.7.FA
ure, the images pulse with seductive power. Slick and evocative, Mouth #11 has billboard scale and aggressive color, and is resolutely flat. The ruby red lips and smoldering cigarette are isolated and magnified, with the appearance of an enormous cutout; the frameless canvas is itself the shape of the lips and cigarette. Like much pop art, the painting is playful and ironic. The sultry mouth, its lips full and downturned, evokes a personage at once sensuous and contrived.
306
contemporary
3121-04 DMA handbook Modern-Contemporary [BW 10-11].indd 306
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