Wesselmann spent time in East Hampton, particularly during the summer months. Like many New York-based artists, he used the East End of Long Island as a retreat from the city. The relative quiet and natural beauty offered him a place to focus on his work without urban distractions. Some of his larger-scale pieces, including late nudes and shaped canvases, were conceptualized or worked on there.

East Hampton and the surrounding Hamptons area were hubs for many important American artists in the mid-20th century—Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Roy Lichtenstein, to name a few. Wesselmann's presence there linked him to this influential creative milieu. Although he wasn’t as publicly tied to the Hamptons art scene as Pollock or de Kooning, his time in East Hampton placed him within the same lineage of artists who drew inspiration from the area.

While Wesselmann’s art is most recognized for its bold, synthetic colors and sleek, commercial imagery (like nudes, still lifes, and cigarette imagery), the natural light and environment of East Hampton may have subtly influenced his palette and compositions—especially in his later, more abstracted works. His later metal cut-out paintings often feature more stylized and minimalist approaches that can be interpreted as meditative, reflecting the serenity of his surroundings in East Hampton.

These 'Steel Drawings' reflect his ongoing interest in expanding the language of drawing and Pop Art by pushing materials and visual boundaries.

Primarily created in the late 1980s and 1990s by using laser-cut steel, these works are essentially 'sculptural line drawings', combining the flatness of drawing with the physical presence of sculpture.