BiographyBorn:1931-2004 Cincinnati, OH Description:Tom Wesselmann, as an art student at New York‘s Cooper Union, was a devotee of the Abstract Expressionists Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, among others. His turning away from their example came about with the realization that those painters had carried their investigations into the possibilities of painting so far into themselves that there was little room in which a newcomer from the next generation might carry on. A new start was necessary from a premise removed as far as possible from the heroic introspection of action painting. That premise was an assumption that the artifacts of the everyday world were of significance in their own right. It was, in a way, a repetition of the revolt of The Eight against an effete academy. This time it was not so much a revolt against the hermetic individualism of Abstract Expressionism as it was a decision, spontaneous and undirected, to go back to the beginning--back to what is understood for what it is by absolutely everyone.The swing of the pendulum was complete, from the esoteric to the commonplace, from passionate individualism to the popular language of the marketplace. The new point of view was not merely popular, it was "pop," assertive, declamatory, defiant: achieving a stylistic identity in the soup cans of Andy Warhol, the comic strips of Roy Lichtenstein, the billboards of James Rosenquist, and the domestic icons of Tom Wesselmann. Considered now, twenty years after its beginning, Pop Art can be appreciated more fully as a tonic reminder of the fact that creativity begins in the relationship of the artist to things "out there," the received experience of the immediate and tangible. Education:1949-1951 Hiram College Ohio1951-1956 BA,University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, OH1954-1956 Art Academy of Cincinnati Cincinnati, OH1956-1959 The Cooper Union New York Exhibitions:Selected Exhibitions2003 Nudes & Abstracts, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY2002 Thomas Ammann Fine Arts, Basel, Switzerland2000 Tom Wesselmann: Blue Nudes, Joesph Helman Gallery New York, NY2000 Tom Wesselmann, JGM Galerie Paris, France1999 Tom Wesselmann: Small Survey: Small Scale, Maxwell Davidson Gallery New York, NY1998 Wetterling Gallery Stockholm, Sweden1997 Tom Wesselmann, Galerie Benden Klimczak Viersen, Germany1996 Tom Wesselmann Lasers and Lithos, Maxwell Davidson Gallery New York, NY1995 Tom Wesselmann, Sindy Janis Gallery New York, NY1994 Tom Wesselmann: Recent Works, Galerie Beatrice Wassermann Munich, Germany1993 Tom Wesselmann: New Cut Outs and Drawings, Wassermann Galerie Munich, Germany1992 Tom Wesselmann, Sindey Janis Gallery New York, NY1991 Galerie Tokoro Tokyo, Japan1985 Sidney Janis Gallery New York, NY1984 Modernism San Fransisco, CA1983 Sidney Janis Gallery New York, NY1982 Recent Work by Tom Wesselmann, Sidney Janis Gallery New York1981 Hokin Gallery Miami, FL1980 New Sculpture & Paintings by Tom Wesselman, Sidney Janis Gallery New York1979 Galerie Serge di Bloe Brussels1979 Ehrlich Gallery New York1978 Tom Wesselmann: Graphics 1964-77, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, MA1976 Sidney Janis Gallery New York Collections: Museum Collections Worldwide