Still Life #2
1962
Tom Wesselmann (American, 1931-2004)
Not on View

Like many artists of the 1950s and 1960s, Tom Wesselman responded to postwar consumerism by incorporating elements of popular culture into his paintings. Unlike Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein, however, Wesselman was less concerned with criticizing or celebrating these aspects of contemporary life and more interested in the formal characteristics that these references brought to his work. In Still Life #2 the artist assembles a rather traditional scene, updated in both subject and style for midcentury artist and viewer. Several of the objects have been cut and pasted—even the elegant floral still life at center—and this play among the various depictions of reality was at the heart of his artistic interests. Wesselman felt that the dialogue between painted objects and collage “helps establish a momentum throughout the picture... At first glance, my pictures seem well behaved, as if—that is a still life, OK. But these things have such crazy give-and-take that I feel they get really very wild.”

Details

  • Artist Name: Tom Wesselmann (American, 1931-2004)
  • Title: Still Life #2
  • Date: 1962
  • Medium: Oil and collage on board
  • Dimensions: 48 x 48-1/8 in. (121.9 x 122.2 cm)
  • Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, Gift of Mr. Fred Heim
  • Accession Number: P.1969.070
  • Copyright: Art © Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Reproduction of this image, including downloading, is prohibited without written authorization from VAGA www.vagarights.com

Object Information

[Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles, sold to];
Fred Heim, gift 1969 to;
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, 1969-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, 1975.

Tom Wesselmann, a Survey: 1959-1995

  • Santa Monica, Fred Hoffman Fine Art, 1996-02-15 to 1996-04-20

Some Assembly Required: Collage Culture in Post-War America

  • Syracuse, New York Everson Museum of Art, 2002-09-28 to 2003-01-26
  • Madison, Wisconsin Madison Art Center, 2003-06-08 to 2003-08-17
  • Lakeland, Florida Polk Museum of Art, 2003-08-30 to 2003-10-26

Los Angeles to New York: The Dwan Gallery 1959-1971

  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2017-03-05 to 2017-06-18

Silent Things, Secret Things: Still Life from Rembrandt to the Millennium

  • The Albuquerque Museum, 1999-09-19 to 2000-01-02

Permanent and Loan Collection, 1974

  • Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, 1974-03-16 to 1974-06-06

Significant Objects: The Spell of Still Life

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2012-07-20 to 2013-01-21

American Art of the 1950s and 1960s from the Collection of the Norton Simon Museum

  • Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1988-08-11 to 1994-04-03

Pop Culture!

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2001-11-16 to 2002-02-11

R. A. Herold Wing Dedication Exhibition

  • Sacramento, E. B. Crocker Art Gallery, 1969-11-19 to 1969-12-31

Lost but Found: Assemblage, Collage and Sculpture, 1920-2002

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2004-11-05 to 2005-03-28

Duchamp to Pop

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2016-03-04 to 2016-08-29

Radical Past: Contemporary Art and Music in Pasadena, 1960-1974

  • Norton Simon Museum, 1999-02-07 to 1999-06-06
  • Armory Center for the Arts, 1999-02-07 to 1999-04-11
  • Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, Calif.), 1999-02-07 to 1999-04-25
  • Techo, Bijutsu, 10 Years of Pop Art, 1975,
  • Christie's East, NY, Modern and Contemporary Art, 1980, p. 47
  • Fred Hoffman Fine Art, Tom Wesselmann, A Survey: 1959-1995, 1996, pp. 8-9
  • Armory Center for the Arts/Art Center College of Design, Radical Past: Contemporary Art & Music in Pasadena, 1960-1974, 1999, p. 87
  • The Albuquerque Museum, Silent Things, Secret Things: Still Life from Rembrandt to the Millenium, 1999, pl. 84 pp. 190-191
  • Shinzo Adachi, Shoji Yano, Mitsuji Takada, et al., Practice of Painting II, 2001, p. 295
  • Some Assembly Required: Collage Culture in Post-War America, 2002, pp. 51, 87
  • James Meyer and others, From Los Angeles to New York: The Dwan Gallery 1959-1971, 2016, cat. 42 pp. 52, 147(ill.), 371

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