1. Tom Wesselmann, Still Life with Blue Jar and Smoking Cigarette, 1981, Oil on shaped canvases, 274,3 x 561,3 x 167,6 cm, The Estate of Tom Wesselmann, New York, courtesy Gagosian, © ADAGP, Paris, 2024 / Robert McKeever, Courtesy Gagosian Gallery
Pop Forever. Tom Wesselmann and the timelessness of Pop Art
The Fondation Louis Vuitton commemorates its 10th anniversary with an ambitious exhibition blending group and monographic perspectives under the title "Pop Forever: Tom Wesselmann &...", dedicated to one of the 20th century's most influential artistic movements: Pop Art.
Until the end of February 2025, this event does not merely celebrate Tom Wesselmann (1931–2004), a central figure in American Pop Art, but also invites a dialogue with 35 other artists spanning generations and nationalities. Through 150 of Wesselmann's works and 70 additional pieces, the exhibition explores themes of consumption, nudity, and domesticity while questioning the universality and longevity of Pop Art.
The phrase "Pop Forever": forever? It is in this tension that the exhibition presented today finds its place. Following exhibitions like "Basquiat × Warhol" in 2022 and the presentation of young artist Lauren Halsey as part of the Open Space program since 2019, this exhibition is part of the ongoing logic of the Fondation’s program, as well as its collection and internal "popist" line, a flexible term that evokes a sensitivity and aesthetics associated with an expanded and updated interpretation of Pop Art, from Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein to contemporary artists, including Tom Wesselmann.
One aspect of the exhibition will question Pop Art by addressing Wesselmann’s own reluctance to identify with the movement, except, by reducing it to the use of typically American imagery. Nevertheless, the international expansion of Pop, explored here, presents an opportunity to understand what makes it, beyond this specific parameter, universal and timeless in the eyes of the curators.
A telling approach is the curators' effort to trace certain Pop Art sources back to Dada. Mentioning Dada and its artists points to the formal language of collage, which was omnipresent in Pop Art at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. Wesselmann employed this technique in his very first works, and although he eventually abandoned the technique itself, he remained faithful to its principle as a compositional base, evident in the spectacular development of his works that straddle painting and sculpture. He adopted oversized formats, evoking installations and proposing an entirely new relationship with the viewer, which also connects to the flourishing happenings of the same period.
2. Tom Wesselmann, Smoker #10, 1973, Oil on shaped canvases, 274,3 x 202 cm, Courtesy Van de Weghe, New York, © ADAGP, Paris, 2024 / Dawn Blackman
Tom Wesselmann, the painter of the sublime everyday
Wesselmann’s formative years in the vibrant art scene of 1950s and 1960s New York allowed him to encounter a range of artistic movements. But unlike his contemporaries, such as Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein, who often focused on mass production and popular imagery, Wesselmann brought a personal, almost emotional approach to his exploration of Pop Art.
He was fascinated by the intersection of sensuality and commodification, which he explored through the juxtaposition of consumer products and the female form. Wesselmann's work was a commentary not just on the sexual liberation his quite unique for his time. His pieces reflect an ongoing critique of both the objectification of women and the commodification of desire, with a clear focus on the visual pleasure these objects could evoke.
His celebrated series, such as the "Great American Nudes" and "Still Lifes", combine a vibrant palette with an aesthetic borrowed from the visual language of advertising, television, and the cinematic world.
These series engage with the American myth of the "dream life" often incorporating familiar scenes of everyday life, bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms, and seaside locales while focusing on the objects of mass consumption that filled these spaces, such as Coca-Cola bottles, hamburgers, and bread. In these works, sensuality is both celebrated and critiqued: elements like bold red lips, breasts, or legs appear as fetishized fragments of the female body, while simultaneously questioning their reduction to commodities.
Wesselmann’s personal engagement with these objects imbued his work with an ambiguity, offering both visual pleasure and a sense of disconnection from the reality they portrayed. This duality is present in the artist's frequent use of fragmented representations of women: lips, breasts, legs, and feet often appear without faces, turning these parts into almost abstract, disembodied forms.
His use of the "drop-out" technique, where the shape of the canvas mirrors the image, further challenges the viewer’s perception, transforming familiar domestic scenes into complex works of art. These works reflect Wesselmann's unique position in Pop Art, combining eroticism, abstraction, and visual spectacle into a language that both celebrated and critiqued the American cultural landscape of the time.
3. Derrick Adams, Super Nude 4, 2024, Acrylic, latex paint and fabric collage on panel, 152,4 x 152,4 cm, Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian © Derrick Adams Studio
A cross-generational and universal dialogue
A defining feature of the exhibition is its dialogue between Wesselmann's works and those of other artists, spanning different times and cultural contexts. This approach not only situates Wesselmann within the Pop Art movement but also underscores its ability to transcend geographical boundaries and adapt to contemporary concerns. By juxtaposing his works with those of contemporaries, predecessors, and successors, the exhibition highlights how Pop Art’s themes of mass culture, identity, and representation remain relevant in a globalized world.
The first section, centered on the 1960s, draws connections between Wesselmann and iconic figures like Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Roy Lichtenstein, while also featuring pioneering women artists such as Evelyne Axell, Yayoi Kusama, and Marisol. This diversity of voices expands the narrative of Pop Art, examining different perspectives on the body and consumer culture.
For instance, while Warhol's Marilyn Monroe symbolizes a media-constructed icon, Wesselmann’s fragmented depictions of the feminine form, like the "Great American Nudes" reflect a more intimate, yet equally critical, exploration of sensuality and commodification. Kusama, on the other hand, uses repetition and patterns to deconstruct and challenge perceptions of identity, while Axell’s works foreground feminist critiques of sexuality and liberation.
The exhibition also bridges Wesselmann’s domestic interiors and everyday objects with related works by artists who reimagined similar themes. James Rosenquist’s "President Elect" (1960–1961) combines political imagery with consumer goods, echoing Wesselmann’s blending of the personal and the public. Meanwhile, Sylvie Fleury’s "Skin Crime 3 (Givenchy 318)" (1997), a pink-painted Fiat inspired by a nail polish color, updates the Pop Art aesthetic for a contemporary audience, emphasizing the evolving relationship between consumerism and personal identity.
Historical references deepen the dialogue, linking Wesselmann’s techniques to the Dadaist legacy of Marcel Duchamp and Kurt Schwitters. Duchamp’s "Fountain" (1917/1964) and Schwitters’ use of found materials resonate with Wesselmann’s incorporation of real objects, such as radiators, windows, and televisions into his assemblages and paintings, such as "Bathtub Collage #1" (1963) and "Still Life #38" (1964). Eduardo Paolozzi and Richard Hamilton, key figures in British Pop Art, further contextualize Wesselmann's interest in the aesthetics of the domestic sphere, with their depictions of the modern homemaker’s world.
The exhibition’s contemporary sections illustrate the enduring influence of Wesselmann and Pop Art’s visual language. Mickalene Thomas revisits female nudes by reclaiming agency and challenging stereotypes of race and gender, while Derrick Adams critiques the idealized American Dream through images imbued with African-American cultural references. Ai Weiwei’s "Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo" juxtaposes ancient and modern to critique globalization, while Tomokazu Matsuyama’s shaped canvases update Wesselmann’s explorations of interiors with a digital-age sensibility.
Key series, such as Wesselmann’s "Seascapes" and "Standing Still Lifes", are also revisited in light of these cross-generational dialogues. Works like "Seascape #24" (1967), with its fragment of a female breast silhouetted against a seaside backdrop, exemplify how Wesselmann’s focus on body fragments both abstracts and eroticizes the human form. In "Standing Still Life" pieces from the 1970s, monumental depictions of everyday objects, inspired by billboard advertisements, become theatrical and immersive, creating a hybrid of painting, sculpture, and installation that is still influential today.
The exhibition’s final levels delve into Wesselmann’s later experiments with abstraction in painted and cut metal works, recalling his early fascination with the gestural vitality of Abstract Expressionists like Willem de Kooning. These abstract metal pieces demonstrate his continued innovation, bridging his Pop Art origins with new forms of expression that emphasize line, color, and form over representation.
Through these rich connections, the exhibition not only celebrates Wesselmann's legacy but also places him within a broader narrative of global and evolving artistic discourse, affirming Pop Art as both a historical and a living movement.
"Pop Forever" brilliantly illustrates the evolution and enduring relevance of Pop Art. By positioning Tom Wesselmann at the center of a network of artistic dialogues, the exhibition demonstrates how a movement often perceived as ephemeral and tied to a specific era can continue to inspire and challenge contemporary society.
Through his ability to combine sensuality with critical reflection, Wesselmann transformed the everyday into art. By revisiting his works through the lenses of globalization, technology, and new critical perspectives, the curator's of the Fondation Louis Vuitton invites visitors to rediscover Pop Art not as a relic of the past but as a living and perpetually reinvented aesthetic.
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Fondation Louis Vuitton
Date: 17.10.2024 - 24.02.2025
Curators: Suzanne Pagé
Ticket: Available on the website of the Fondation Louis Vuitton OR at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Fondation Louis Vuitton
Fondation Louis Vuitton
8 Avenue du Mahatma Gandhi
75116 Paris