The Great American Nude

1966

Tom Wesselmann

Artist, American, 1931 - 2004

A nude, light-skinned woman reclines on her back with her arms stretched overhead in this abstracted, horizontal screenprint. Her body is cropped at mid-thigh to our left and the top of her head and her arms beyond the elbows are cropped to the right. Her face, hair, and body are created with areas of flat color. Most of her rust-orange skin appears deeply tanned, which contrasts with strips of pale, shell pink where a bikini would be, across her hips and around her breasts. There is a tuft of pubic hair where her thighs meet and round, cherry-red nipples with darker tips on her breasts. Her stylized, cartoonish, smiling mouth is burgundy red around a field of faint pink for her teeth. Her mouth is the only feature on her oval face, which is surrounded by a shape suggesting amber-yellow hair between upstretched arms.
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Artwork overview


Artwork history & notes

Exhibition History

1985

  • Figure Prints from the National Gallery's Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1985-1986, no cat.

Inscriptions

lower right in graphite: Wesselmann 66 F.

Wikidata ID

Q65512245


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