Still Life #12

Tom Wesselmann, Still Life #12, 1962, acrylic and collage of fabric, photogravure, metal, etc. on fiberboard, 48 x 48 ¹⁄₈ in. (122 x 122.1 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1986.23, © 1962, Tom Wesselmann

Artwork Details

Title: Still Life #12
Artist: Tom Wesselmann
Date: 1962
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 48 x 48 ¹⁄₈ in. (122 x 122.1 cm)
Copyright: © 1962, Tom Wesselmann
Credit Line: Museum purchase
Mediums: metal
fabric
acrylic
Mediums Description: acrylic and collage of fabric, photogravure, metal, etc. on fiberboard
Classifications: Painting
Subjects: Still life — other — cookware
Still life — other — container
Still life — other — container
Still life — foodstuff — meat
Still life — art tool — camera
Still life — art tool — camera
Still life — foodstuff — beverage
Still life — fruit — lemon
Still life — fruit — apple
Object Number: 1986.23
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1986.23

Artwork Description

Still Life #12 recasts the established tradition of still-life painting in the pop language of American consumer culture. Wesselmann's tabletop scene is a landscape of temptation and bounty, combining advertising images of frosty beverages and a glistening ham with painted facsimiles of fruit and a redchecked tablecloth. The luscious images point to multiple modes of desire. The apple and breast-shaped lemon perch on the threshold of a Garden of Eden while, below, the trussed ham and two strategically placed cans of "Bustelo" coffee stand in for one of the female figures that Wesselman made famous in his Great American Nude series. The image of a camera staring toward the quasi-figure in the foreground further suggests the influence of commercial photography, including pin-up imagery, on Wesselman's art.