GENERAL DESCRIPTION
In the early 1960s, pop artist Tom Wesselmann began a series of monumental paintings of blonde nudes languorously posed in interior, nonspecific settings. As the series progressed, he began to zero in on the nude alone, and finally, almost fetishistically, on individual details of her body - a foot, a breast, her mouth. Even though little remained of the overall female figure, the images pulse with seductive power. Slick and evocative, Mouth #11 has billboard scale and aggressive color and is resolutely flat. The ruby red lips and smoldering cigarette are isolated and magnified, with the appearance of an enormous cutout; the frameless canvas is itself the shape of the lips and cigarette. Like much pop art, the painting is playful and ironic. The sultry mouth, its lips full and downturned, evoke a personage at once sensuous and contrived.
Excerpt from
Bonnie Pitman, ed., "Mouth #11 (1968.7.FA)," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 306.
NOTES
Pop Art's relation to commercial art is clear in Tom Wesselmann's Mouth #11, a billboard-size shaped canvas work of a woman's mouth with a cigarette. Like the billboard, Mouth's giant image has visual impact from considerable distance, but the painting offers a sardonic view of American sensuality and the advertising which panders to it.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
Until 1968: Sidney Janis Limited, New York, NY
From 1968: Dallas Museum Fine of Arts, Foundation for the Arts Collection, Mr. and Mrs. Edward S. Marcus Fund, purchased from above [1]
[1] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 1968.7.FA
Category
rules_operator
AND
General Description
In the early 1960s, pop artist Tom Wesselmann began a series of monumental paintings of blonde nudes languorously posed in interior, nonspecific settings. As the series progressed, he began to zero in on the nude alone, and finally, almost fetishistically, on individual details of her body - a foot, a breast, her mouth. Even though little remained of the overall female figure, the images pulse with seductive power. Slick and evocative, Mouth #11 has billboard scale and aggressive color and is resolutely flat. The ruby red lips and smoldering cigarette are isolated and magnified, with the appearance of an enormous cutout; the frameless canvas is itself the shape of the lips and cigarette. Like much pop art, the painting is playful and ironic. The sultry mouth, its lips full and downturned, evoke a personage at once sensuous and contrived.
Excerpt from
Bonnie Pitman, ed., "Mouth #11 (1968.7.FA)," in Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 306.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
Notes
Pop Art's relation to commercial art is clear in Tom Wesselmann's Mouth #11, a billboard-size shaped canvas work of a woman's mouth with a cigarette. Like the billboard, Mouth's giant image has visual impact from considerable distance, but the painting offers a sardonic view of American sensuality and the advertising which panders to it.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
Until 1968: Sidney Janis Limited, New York, NY
From 1968: Dallas Museum Fine of Arts, Foundation for the Arts Collection, Mr. and Mrs. Edward S. Marcus Fund, purchased from above [1]
[1] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
rules
Apply To
Objects
number
Equals
1968.7.FA
source file
object_notes_1_a-0251.xml.nores