Stockinged Nude #7

Attempting to separate himself from the Abstract Expressionist movement embraced by his artistic forbearers—Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, for example—in 1959, Tom Wesselmann turned to the traditional theme of the female nude. Far from the coquettishly-posed women historically portrayed in the genre, the woman depicted in Stockinged Nude #7 is forthright and altogether frank in her nakedness. The cropping, just above her stockinged knees and at her left elbow, creates an up-close and personal perspective granting the viewer access to an intensely intimate moment of pleasurable repose. Although he insisted he was unconcerned with the motives underlying the Pop movement, Wesselmann’s works seamlessly blend commercialism and voyeurism, transforming the body into an object for consumption. Matter-of-fact and honest in his approach, his depictions of female nudes ultimately celebrate the flourishing sexual liberation of woman of the time and glorify the female body for its elusive beauty.