Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004)

"Early in 1965 Wesselmann made the first foot paintings. This subject was provoked when Wesselmann in Great American Nude #58 used a collage woman, cut from a subway poster. He used all but the feet. This pair of feet hung around the studio and had an irresistible presence. They became the focus of a small collage, Little Seascape #1. The idea of a big foot as the main element of a painting, taking the place of a full figure, became very exciting to Wesselmann; and he began a series of foot paintings" (T. Wesselmann as Slim Stealingworth, Tom Wesselmann, New York, 1980, p. 44).
In Tom Wesselmann's spectacular Seascape #12, a bronzed, nubile foot extends vertically towards the heavens. Painted in 1966, the work is a classic example of the Seascape series, which features close-up views of female body parts against an idyllic stretch of sea and sky. Rendered in easy, delectable colors and crystal-clear outlines, Wesselmann's work relates his excitement as he began working on a more expansive scale. Included in the artist's first one-man show at the fabled Sidney Janis Gallery, the picture remains an irresistible example of Wesselmann's early work with its shaped canvas that playfully frames a splayed foot within a majestic arch of clouds. In Wesselmann's irresistible Pop style transforms the traditional female body and seascape, using the slick, oversized graphics of billboards and the vibrating chromatic shapes of the pure painters. While Seascape #12 a foot within landscape, it takes the history of art as its subject matter.
Inspired by his recent trips along the Massachusetts coast, Wesselmann found the linear forms of ocean, sky and sand to perfectly align with his signature vernacular of streamlined forms. Painted in multiple layers of acrylic paint, Wesselmann achieves a flawless surface of pristine matte hue. To explain the sudden move towards landscape, the artist wrote, "All of these earlier feet were limited to the outdoors, and specifically the seaside. The seascape situation was used because Wesselmann had recently discovered vacations. A number of watercolor studies for the ocean and beach around Truro, Massachusetts, grew out of a two-week Cape Cod vacation. While these studies played only a small but direct part in the paintings, they did focus his attention and awareness on the sea" (T. Wesselmann, in ibid, p. 44). In fact, the series allowed Wesselmann to focus on his primary concerns of line, flat color and scale.
Seascape #12, rendered in neat outlines and cool, streamlined shapes, recalls the flattened perspective and "primary structures" of geometric abstract and Color Field painting. In particular, the work seems to draw on Ellsworth Kelly's shaped canvases painted in deep, indigo blue, but also anticipates Frank Stella's 1967 Protractor series . According to Wesselmann, "I've always felt that, first of all, subject matter got in the way. And subject matter for me was always an excuse to make a painting anyway. That's why I think still lifes are just as exciting as the nude because it's just an excuse to make a terrific painting." (T. Wesselmann quoted in J. Burton, "Like a Rousseau Among the Cubists" in H. Foster and J. Wilmerding (ed.), Pop Art: Contemporary Perspectives, exh. cat., Princeton University Press, 2007, p. 113). Dramatically juxtaposing the planar landscape and the cropped foot, Wesselmann creates Seascape #12 with distinctly surreal imagery that recalls Rene Magritte's penchant for painting disembodied objects and enigmatic cloud formations.