Author Description

Gagosian is pleased to present Tom Wesselmann: Standing Still Lifes, an exhibition of nine monumental works made between 1967 and 1981. This is the first time that the complete series will be shown together. Each large-scale work comprises multiple canvases, both hanging and standing, shaped according to the outlines of the commonplace objects that they depict. Wesselmann's spatial and pictorial innovation in the Standing Still Life paintings have precedents in his early work. His drawings of his wife and lifelong muse, Claire Selley--beginning in the 1950s when they met as students at Cooper Union--often took the form of hybrid collages that incorporated sketches and scraps of wallpaper and advertisements that he found in the New York City subway. Similarly, his early assemblage paintings, which included functioning objects and gadgets, present shifting images that advance and retreat depending on the viewer's relative position, like stage sets that can be seen but not entered.--Gallery website.