Still Life #12

Tom Wesselmann, Still Life #12, 1962, acrylic and collage of fabric, photogravure, metal, etc. on fiberboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1986.23, © 1962, Tom Wesselmann
Copied 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
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
Mediums Description
acrylic and collage of fabric, photogravure, metal, etc. on fiberboard
Classifications
Subjects
  • Still life — foodstuff — beverage
  • Still life — fruit — lemon
  • Still life — fruit — apple
  • Still life — art tool — camera
  • Still life — art tool — camera
  • Still life — foodstuff — meat
  • Still life — other — container
  • Still life — other — container
  • Still life — other — cookware
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.