Tom Wesselmann
- 1931 - 2004
- Born in 1931, in United States
After studying psychology at the University of Cincinnati – a course interrupted by two years’ military service – Tom Wesselmann enrolled at the Art Academy in the same city in 1956, and subsequently at the Cooper Union in New York. Like so many other artists of his generation, he viewed the then-dominant Abstract Expressionism with a mixture of admiration and criticism, before turning to classical modes of representation such as the nude, still life and landscape. The influence of Henri Matisse is evident, and at times explicit, in his works from the late 1950s. By adopting the technique of collage, Wesselmann was in fact engaging with the themes of Pop Art.
