Monica Sitting Robe Half Off. 1986/1990.
Multiple. Steel cut, painted in color.
Signed, numbered, dated, titled and inscribed with dimensions on the reverse by the artist. From an edition of 25 copies. 29 x 17 cm (11.4 x 6.6 in).
Published by the artist and Sidney Janis Gallery, New York. [KA].

The Bar Code of Life – The Hans Braun Collection
More works from the collection are offered in our Contemporary Art Day Sale on Saturday, December 7, 2024.

• Wesselmann's striking steel cut in bright colors illustrates why he is an icon of pop art.
• The piece shows Monica, an artist and long-time assistant of Tom Wesselmann, who posed for him from the mid-1980s.
• The artist's works in metal mark a pinnacle of his technical skill.
• The sketch-like delicacy of the painted steel shows Wesselmann's creative idiosyncrasy, almost as if he were drawing with the metal.
• Wesselmann's nudes appear in numerous international collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Tate Modern, London.

PROVENANCE: Collection of Sidney Janis Gallery, New York.
Hans Braun Collection, Baden-Württemberg (since 1999, Ketterer Kunst).

LITERATURE:
The Wildenstein Plattner Institute / Tom Wesselmann Estate (ed.), The Tom Wesselmann Digital Corpus, online catalog raisonné no. TWSCHY.
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Ketterer Kunst, Munich, 230th auction, May 8, 1999, lot 107.

Wesselmann has devoted his energies to his “metal works” since 1983. The sketches they are based on are executed in steel cuts in an almost playful fashion. Wesselmann challenges conventional perceptions. Contours engage in a dialogue with empty spaces, lines, and surfaces. The absence of perspective – the figure appears on the surface in ornamental form – allows the pictorial levels to interweave. Wesselmann uses common stereotypes in his depiction of Monica: half-exposed, full red lips and erect nipples. The combination of artistic inventiveness and the nude makes Wesselmann's works a special treat for the viewer.

In very good condition with strong colors.