22 Facts About Tom Wesselmann

Thomas K Wesselmann was an American artist associated with the Pop Art movement who worked in painting, collage and sculpture.

Tom Wesselmann was drafted into the US Army in 1952, but spent his service years stateside.

Tom Wesselmann achieved some initial success when he sold his first cartoon strips to the magazines 1000 Jokes and True.

Tom Wesselmann began to teach art at a public school in Brooklyn, and later at the High School of Art and Design.

That year, Tom Wesselmann had begun working on a new series of still lifes.

Tom Wesselmann's compositional focus became more daring, narrowing down to isolate a single detail: the Mouth series began in 1965, his Seascapes began the following year.

Tom Wesselmann started working on shaped canvases and opted for increasingly large formats.

Tom Wesselmann worked constantly on the Bedroom Painting series, in which elements of the Great American Nude, Still Lifes and Seascapes were juxtaposed.

Tom Wesselmann's Smokers continued to change: he introduced the hand, with polished fingernails sparkling in the smoke.

In 1978 Tom Wesselmann started work on a new series of Bedroom Paintings.

Tom Wesselmann's second daughter, Kate, was born; previous children were Jenny and Lane.

In 1983 Tom Wesselmann was seized by the idea of doing a drawing in steel, as if the lines on paper could be lifted off and placed on a wall.

Tom Wesselmann had to invest in the development of a system that could accomplish this, but it took another year for that to be ready.

Tom Wesselmann took his idea further and decided to make them in color as well.

The Drawing Society produced a video directed by Paul Cummings, in which Tom Wesselmann makes a portrait of a model and a work in aluminum.

In other words they should not be taken as a sign that Tom Wesselmann is embarking on an extended re-engagement with his classic Pop phase.

Tom Wesselmann acknowledged the influence of Mondrian by choosing titles that recall the earlier painter's works: New York City Beauty.

In 1960 Tom Wesselmann had been able to view the works of the French master in person at the MoMA's Gouaches Decoupees exhibition, and forty years later he paid homage in his Sunset Nudes series.

Tom Wesselmann derived works from Matisse's cut-outs: Blue Nude, initiated a series of blue nude reliefs sculpted in shaped aluminum.

In 1957 Tom Wesselmann met Claire Selley, another Cooper Union student who was to become his friend, model, and in 1963, his wife.

The years following Tom Wesselmann's death were marked by a renewed interest in his work.

Tom Wesselmann was a self-described fan of country music, and sometimes incorporated operating radios, TVs, or other sound elements into his works.