A retrospective exhibition spanning the artist’s career and marking the first presentation in Greece of the American Pop Art pioneer.
Gagosian is pleased to announce the exhibition Tom Wesselmann: Seascapes, Still Lifes, and Nudes, opening on March 17, 2026. The exhibition brings together iconic paintings and drawings from across Wesselmann’s career and marks his first solo exhibition in Greece. Wesselmann-Tom-2026-Seascapes-S…
A pioneering and unconventional artist, Tom Wesselmann (1931–2004) emerged in the early 1960s as one of the founding figures of Pop Art. Drawing inspiration from traditional artistic genres, he created mixed-media works—interiors, landscapes, nudes, and still lifes—combining the figurative painting of modernism with references to mass culture.
During a period of profound social and cultural change, when consumption, representation, and sexuality were being radically reconsidered, Wesselmann redefined artistic iconography through a language that was abstracted, contemporary, and distinctly American—guided by what the artist himself described as “erotic simplification.”
A key work in the exhibition is Great American Nude #1 (1961), which inaugurated a series of one hundred numbered works produced between 1961 and 1973. In the composition, a reclining female nude occupies the upper half of the picture. Flat areas of unmodulated color, simplified curves, and bold shapes recall the stylistic legacy of Henri Matisse.
Behind the figure appears a collage featuring hills and a seascape, the tricolor of the French flag, and a pattern of stars evoking the American flag—elements that subtly reference Wesselmann’s artistic influences.
Beginning in 1965, Wesselmann developed a series of seascapes and collages depicting fragmented parts of the human body—legs, breasts, or facial profiles—set against vivid horizontal bands of color suggesting sky, waves, and sand. The artist continued to explore this motif in works that juxtapose the human body with the natural landscape.
In Seascape #24 (1967–71), the female breast is implied through its absence. As Wesselmann wrote, “As may happen on a sunny beach, the flesh disappears in that moment of awareness when the eye turns outward toward the sun; yet the nipple remains part of the composition through its color, its form, and its role as a focal point.”
Other paintings and drawings document Wesselmann’s ongoing experiments with style and form throughout his career. Works such as Still Life with Daffodil, Rose and Green Plate (1985) and Country Bouquet with Hibiscus (1989) employ a process in which linear drawings were translated into interlocking shapes cut from laser-cut steel, which the artist then painted.
Later works including Still Life with Blonde and Two Goldfish (1999) and Blue Nude #8 (2000) demonstrate Wesselmann’s enduring interest in abstraction, vibrant color, and the recurring themes of the nude and still life.
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