To celebrate its tenth anniversary, the Louis Vuitton Foundation presents one of the first exhibitions of its 2024-2025 artistic season, dedicated to pop art, with the work of one of its leading figures: Tom Wesselmann.

From its inception, Pop Art transformed the symbols of mass culture, becoming one of the major artistic movements of the 1960s. While Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist are among its key figures, Tom Wesselmann (1931–2004) should not be overlooked. This artist, painter, and comic book illustrator, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, is celebrated at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris in a major exhibition on Pop Art, featuring a selection of 150 paintings and other works.

EXPLOSION OF GRAPHIC ELEMENTS

Quickly distinguishing himself from abstract expressionism, Tom Wesselmann developed his own style by creating collages and assemblages that incorporate all sorts of everyday objects, advertisements, and images. His work is a game of deconstructing and reassembling the American dream. He has taken hold of traditional painting themes (nudes, still lifes, landscapes), integrated multimedia elements (light, movement, sound, video) into his works, and broadened the scope of his practice with his Standing Still Lifes, at the crossroads of painting and installation.

This representative of pop art constantly pushed creative boundaries, experimenting with techniques such as laser cutting. But he also drew inspiration from the work of Matisse, one of his greatest influences. His series The Great American Nude, considered his best-known work, continues to stylize traditional subjects, notably elevating the French painter's odalisques to pop icons.

TOM WESSELMANN AND THE OTHERS

Through his bold approach to color and form, Tom Wesselmann established himself on the American art scene. With his works and the history of Pop Art, the Louis Vuitton Foundation brings together 35 artists from different generations and nationalities who share a "Pop" sensibility. This exhibition explores the movement from its Dadaist roots to its contemporary extensions, from the 1920s to the present day.

Co-curators Dieter Buchhart and Anna Karina Hofbauer contextualize his work within the evolution of this movement, which was active on both sides of the Atlantic, offering perspectives that bridge past, present, and future. The exhibition, spread across the building's four floors, unfolds as a "hypothesis of Pop art that transcends eras," taking on this "dual form"—a blend of retrospective and thematic display—all the more aptly.

POP ART AND BEYOND

Tom Wesselmann's art is thus immersed in the intellectual and aesthetic climate of pop art in order to better develop a more general message. The co-curators bring his Great American Nudes into dialogue with the icons of his generation (Evelyne Axell, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Marisol, Marjorie Strider, Andy Warhol), but also his collages and their Dadaist roots drawn from Marcel Duchamp or Kurt Schwitters, and his stagings of consumer goods as precursors to those of commodities in the age of globalization by Jeff Koons or Ai Weiwei.

The exhibition complements the analysis of his nudes and intimate and domestic scenes with the works of a new generation, such as Derrick Adams, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Mickalene Thomas.

“POP FOREVER, TOM WESSELMANN &…”
LOUIS VUITTON FOUNDATION
8, AVENUE DU MAHATMA GANDHI, PARIS 16E
FROM OCTOBER 17, 2024 TO FEBRUARY 24, 2025
FONDATIONLOUISVUITTON.FR