Judy Trying on Clothes 1997

Tom Wesselmann has made this fabulous painting of Judy in what looks like enamel on canvas. It’s got that bright, clean, and streamlined kind of finish. Imagine Wesselmann painting this: Judy bent over, lost in a pile of clothes and colour, with a light touch, but knowing where everything goes and a confident brushstroke. What's the feeling? It's so casual and free, a pure pop-style celebration of everyday life, like a soap opera or a sitcom, yet so stylized. He's almost playing with flatness here, embracing this smooth, graphic style, pushing the boundaries of representation in painting, so everything feels real but also so, so fake. Wesselmann was part of a generation that loved to play with commercialism. This canvas is part of an ongoing exchange of ideas that just keeps feeding the energy of painting. We all take inspiration from each other.