Exhibition Review: Tom Wesselmann @MBAMTL

I just got home from the exhibition and I just have to pour all these thoughts out before they fade away.

I am amazed by Wesselmann. He emerged in the early 1960's from working as a student with the abstract expressionist icon William de Kooning. Wesselmann strived to avoid imitating the style of his mentor, and forge his own artistic identity.

He didn't feel the anal retentive need that many artists possess to be perfect. He didn't care if his proportions weren't exactly right, or if his pencil lines showed from underneath a layer of paint.  His oils were amazing. When you look at his earliest work, his collages, and then progress to the oil paintings, you at first think that they are all cutouts, but they aren't. He masters the art of this mimicry. And the sheer brilliance of his colours is enough to blow you away. I found myself lost in pools of rich emerald green and deep magenta. It takes a certain boldness to use these colours in the way he did. As much as he tried to stay away from it, you can see the influence of de Kooning in much of his work.

What I also really loved was his metalwork. He mastered the art of taking the lines you would see in a simple sketch and recreated them in steel. Many of his metal sculptures are cut from one sheet of steel, no welding or soldering. Seeing them on the wall, they look so delicate and fragile. They are so beautiful.


At the end of his life, Wesselmann conceeded to reconciling with abstraction, his "first love" if you will, while holding true to the style he had developed over the course of his life. I give major props to the curator, who did an amazing job. You can see the progression, you can understand Wesselman's journey, and admire his brilliance.

When you look at his collection as a whole, you can Wesselmann is a master of Pop Art without being too pop-y. At first I was apprehensive, when I looked up the artist all I saw were images of nudes. A friend of mine asked if the exhibition had "too many weird nudes." My answer.. define "too many"..  Yes you could consider this exhibition a parade of 'weird nudes' with breaks in between.. but once you see these works in person, you realize it isn't about the nudes at all. Its about everything but the nudes. Its about the dialogue; between the artist, the viewer, fellow artists of his time, masters of the past, society, commercialism.. literally, everything but the actual "subject matter" of the piece. And moreover, Wesselmann executes these ideas with such sharp wit. I couldn't help but to smirk and sometimes laugh at the subtle references and comments in many of his collages and paintings.

I have to reiterate that I am not a big fan of Pop Art. I prefer the Abstract Expressionists and the masters of old.. so I came to this exhibition doubtful. But when I gave Tom Wesselmann a chance, I realized I get it. And once I got it, I appreciated it a lot more. I can even say I loved it.

The one shortcoming that I can think of is that his work does not transfer well in print or digital media. It just doesn't do his pieces justice. You can Google his work, but don't let it form your opinion. You need to see it for yourself, "in the flesh" haha, in order to appreciate it fully and really understand what he's doing. So people, if you are in Montreal or planning on visiting Montreal anytime soon, I encourage you to check it out at the The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. It is definitely worth seeing.