"The figures dealt primarily with their presence. Almost all faces were left off because the nudes were not intended to be portraits in any sense. Personality would interfere with the bluntness of the fact of the nude. When body features were included, they were those important to erotic implication, like lips and nipples. There was no modeling, no hint at dimension. Simply drawn lines were virtually a collage element—the addition of drawing to the painting.”
E nchantingly provocative and irresistibly alluring, Tom Wesselmann’s Little Great American Nude No. 28 of 1965 exemplifies the artist's uniquely seductive approach to Pop art and his career-long exploration of the female nude. In the present work, Wesselmann presents a tightly cropped view of a sumptuous, nude female figure reclining into a deep indigo background, her blonde hair and bare breasts consuming the viewer’s attention. Emerging from the artist’s landmarkGreat American Nude series, inaugurated in 1961 and spanning a decade with the creation of 100 works, the present work stands out as an exceptionally rendered study for its larger-scale successors, Great American Nude No. 76 and Great American Nude No. 77. The series propelled Wesselmann to the forefront of the American Pop Art movement of the 1960s, laying the foundations for the legendary artist’s artistic vision and dedication to classical figurative painting. In the present work, both object and subject become the erotic fantasy of Post War suburban life in America.
Right: Gustave Courbet, Femme nue couchée, 1862. Private collects ion.
Originally inspired by the aesthetics of Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s, Wesselmann sought to develop his own interpretation of the nude and odalisque motif championed by the 19th Century French painters, such as Édouard Manet and Gustave Courbet. Born from a desire to subvert the rise of Playboy and the proliferation of hyper-sexulaized images in 60s' consumer culture, Wesselmann’s Little Great American Nude No. 28 series parodied the fantasy and commodified reality of the ‘Great American Dream’ ethos of the 20th century. With each piece from this remarkable series, Wesselmann sought to generate the same visceral drama of the greatest Abstract Expressionist works, but with a visual idiom that spoke both to American culture and canonized motifs of Western painting. Little Great American Nude No. 28 sees these concepts realized on an intimate scale, and prevails as a remarkable paragon within the series with which the artist made his name.
