—Tom Wesselmann, writing in his journal, 1985

After focusing on his painted laser cut metal works for over a decade, Tom Wesselmann returned to painting in the late 1990s with a series he called the “Canvas Drawings”. Characterized by a liberated style, as if he was sketching, these works were depictions of a reclining nude, painted from direct observation. As the series developed, the image of the nude became more schematic and less specific. In an act of retrospection, Wesselmann was referencing his celebrated 1960s series of “Great American Nudes”, quoting the subject matter in a reinterpreted manner, a synthesis of his own artistic career and art historical references. Blue Nude Blonde on Beach (2001) is self-referential, functioning as a tribute to Wesselmann’s own artistic progression, as well as his major influences.

Blue Nude Blonde on Beach (2001), integrates Wesselmann’s fascination for reclining nudes, and his deep familiarity with art history. Following the tradition of Pablo Picasso’s many examples of Femme Couchée, Édouard Manet’s Olympia (1863) and Titian’s Venus of Urbino (1534), Wesselmann updates the classical nude to fit his own time. Wesselmann believed that it was his responsibility to translate this centuries-old subject matter into a present-day language. The work gestures to Henri Matisse, from whom Wesselmann drew inspiration throughout his life, in terms of composition, colour, and line. Blue Nude Blonde on Beach (2001) has a bright palette which directly quotes Matisse’s Le Bonheur de Vivre (October 1905 – March 1906). The sea in the background echoes the aquamarine hills in Matisse’s masterpiece which now hangs at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.

Blue Nude Blonde on Beach (2001) also attests to Wesselmann’s admiration for Willem de Kooning. In going full circle and adopting in his late works a more expressionist approach to the nude, Wesselmann, no longer concerned with the effort of distancing himself from the tenants of Abstract Expressionism, draws closer to De Kooning’s gestural manner, with thick lines and liberated brushstrokes. Wesselmann is able to bring colour to the body of the nude, filling in its outlines. The artist can be observed establishing his forms with confident lines and partially filling them in, retaining some of the negative spaces that defined his laser cut drawings. In his later series of “Sunset Nudes”, Wesselmann goes on to complete this transition and unites line, form and colour in a new way.