Tom Wesselmann put a real refrigerator door in a painting. In December 2024 we visited Pop Forever, Tom Wesselmann &... at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, which ran from 17 October 2024 to 24 February 2025. It brought together 150 of his works, plus 70 works by 35 other artists, from the Dada roots of Pop to artists working today.
Nearly two years on, Wesselmann is having a busy 2026. Gagosian showed Tom Wesselmann: Seascapes, Still Lifes, and Nudes in Athens from 17 March to 30 May. In September, the Estate and Almine Rech opened his New York studio to the public for the first time, for a pairing with Tomokazu Matsuyama, one of the younger artists who made new work for the Paris show. A monograph on the Great American Nudes, edited by Susan Davidson, is on the way. So this is a good moment to look back at what Paris showed, and what it holds for artists now.
Who Tom Wesselmann was
Wesselmann (1931 to 2004) grew up in the suburbs of Cincinnati and set out to be a cartoonist. He began painting in the late 1950s and became one of the leading figures of Pop Art, working for almost half a century with advertising, everyday objects and the classical genres of painting: the still life, the nude, the landscape.
Real things, inside the picture
The first rooms made the point fast. Still Life #30, 1963, from The Museum of Modern Art, is oil, enamel and acrylic on board with printed advertisements, plastic flowers, plastic replicas of 7 Up bottles, a framed colour reproduction, stamped metal and a refrigerator door. Still Life #21, 1962, is acrylic and collage on wood with a recording of the sound of wine being poured. Bedroom Blonde with T.V., 1984 to 1993, has a television set built into the canvas.
In 1963 he began the Bathtub Collages, life size scenes of a woman bathing beside a toilet. The wall text records that shopping trips yielded "a treasure trove of bathroom accessories", including a real toilet seat that recalls Marcel Duchamp's Fountain. Duchamp's Fountain, 1917/1964, was on show a few rooms away.
Then scale. Still Life #57, 1969 to 1970, oil on canvas and acrylic on carpet in six sections, turns an orange and a light switch into objects big enough to make the viewer feel small.
The "&...": who he was shown with
The second half of the title mattered as much as the first. Wesselmann's early collages hung beside Dada; his 1960s work sat with the icons of Pop. Andy Warhol's Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, 1964. Roy Lichtenstein's Girl in Window (Study for World's Fair Mural), 1963. Jasper Johns's Flag, 1958, in encaustic and collage.
For us the strongest thread was the women of Pop. Evelyne Axell's Ice Cream, 1964. Kiki Kogelnik's Self Portrait, 1964. Marjorie Strider's Welcome, 1963, acrylic on Masonite with wood construction, its lips standing out from the surface in relief. The label notes that Strider and Rosalyn Drexler were the only two women in the First International Girlie Exhibit at Pace Gallery, New York, in 1964. Alongside them, Frank Bowling's Cover Girl, 1966, and Yayoi Kusama's Self-Obliteration, 1966 to 1974.
The story then ran into the present, with new work made for the show by Mickalene Thomas, Derrick Adams and Tomokazu Matsuyama.
The Great American Nudes
In 1961 Wesselmann made his name with the Great American Nudes, fusing collage, painting and drawing with patriotic symbols and pages from magazines, posters and billboards. The exhibition text links his simplified forms to Henri Matisse, and notes that the anonymity of his models has long raised questions. Matisse and the Mona Lisa both turn up inside these pictures, as quotations within his own compositions.
Late Wesselmann: drawing in metal
The last rooms were the surprise. In the 1980s Wesselmann moved away from the Standing Still Lifes and began drawing in metal: aluminium cut by hand, steel shaped by laser. The wall text calls him a pioneer who "forced manufacturers to adapt". Over time the metal works moved from figuration towards an abstraction close to rapid brushstrokes, seen in Cross Motion, 1999, and Black Strike, 2002, both oil on cut out aluminium. In parallel he returned to the large nude, as in Sunset Nude with Matisse Apples on Pink Tablecloth, 2003.
What artists can take from Tom Wesselmann (Kei London's view)
Use what is around you. Wesselmann's materials came from the supermarket, the hardware shop and the bathroom showroom. The everyday objects in your own life can carry a picture, and the more specific they are, the more they say about when and where it was made.
Borrow from the greats, openly. He put Matisse and the Mona Lisa inside his paintings and let viewers see the debt. Naming your sources in your statement shows collectors you know where your work sits.
Reinvent, late. He started working in laser cut steel in the 1980s, more than twenty years into his career, and made the fabricators adapt to him. A new medium mid career is a strength when you can explain why you made the move.
If you want an outside view of how your own practice reads to collectors, our Practice Review is a written assessment of your statement, pricing, positioning and public record, from Kei London, an art agency in London. For how collectors are buying now, see Selling Art Directly to Collectors.
Frequently asked questions
When was Pop Forever, Tom Wesselmann &... at Fondation Louis Vuitton? From 17 October 2024 to 24 February 2025, in Paris.
How many works were in the exhibition? 150 works by Tom Wesselmann, plus 70 works by 35 other artists, according to the exhibition's introductory wall text.
What is Tom Wesselmann best known for? The Great American Nudes, begun in 1961, and his Still Lifes, which combine painting with collage and real objects. Late in his career he made cut metal works in aluminium and steel.
Where can I see Tom Wesselmann's work in 2026? Gagosian showed his seascapes, still lifes and nudes in Athens from 17 March to 30 May 2026, and his New York studio opened to the public for the first time in September 2026. Check the Estate, Gagosian and Almine Rech for what is on now.
Photographs by Kei London at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, December 2024. All works © the artists or their estates.
Sources: exhibition wall texts and labels, Fondation Louis Vuitton, 2024; This is Athens; Hypebeast, 27 July 2026; Gagosian.