| Artist: | Tom Wesselman |
|
|---|---|---|
| Title: | Great American Nude #51 | |
| Date: | 1963 | |
| Nationality: | American | |
| Context: | Signscape | |
| Movement: | Pop Art | |
| Materials: | synthetic polymer on composition board | |
| Subject: updating the nude and giving it an American Pop art twist: the reclining Venus crossed with a Playboy centerfold; the human subject as a blank, stereotyped according to mass media standards that rob one of all individuality; the figure is articulated only in the erogenous zones; plastic and flat, the human figure is the least real thing in this mixed media collage; even the flowers and the view of nature out the window are unreal, plastic reproductions. Style: flattened figure in a mixed media collage; simulates the layout design of a magazine centerfold; anti-painterly, adopts a mass media, de-personalized advertising style. Context: mass media and billboard advertising of the 60s that appeals specifically to one's desires,rather than one's needs; using sex appeal to sell a product; the human subject as an object without individuality; the degraded American Dream. | ||
