Stockinged Nude #7 1980

Editor: Here we have Tom Wesselmann's "Stockinged Nude #7," painted in 1980 using acrylic. What immediately strikes me is the boldness of the colors, this unapologetic flatness. It's...graphic, almost like an advertisement. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Indeed, it presents a study in simplified form and heightened color. Observe the flatness of the planes, devoid of traditional modeling techniques. Wesselmann reduces the figure to a series of shapes, outlines in acrylic paint, a bold red for her lips, creating a dialogue between objectification and abstraction. Note, too, how the cropping contributes to the sense of immediacy and challenges conventional notions of portraiture. Editor: It’s interesting how the stockinged legs draw attention to the different areas and breaks down the figure to just… form. There's a lack of traditional depth. Curator: Precisely! It’s a deliberate reduction, an interest in the interplay between positive and negative space and that dynamic is all achieved using very pure elements. The high-key color scheme denies a realistic tonality, instead focusing on color as form, drawing attention to the two-dimensionality of the canvas and heightening the image’s symbolic charge. The texture then serves the idea by not betraying the technique to favor representation. The application serves its function to fill in the contours. The visual construction and its function come across clearly. Editor: So, in focusing on pure form and flatness, he makes us more aware of the elements that comprise a painting. I get the intention now to show how, at the core, a painting can be shapes and color. It really opens up the picture and the topic to so much more than its subject. Curator: Precisely, the visual expression exceeds any referential purpose.