With the series of “Great American Nudes” of the 1960s, Tom Wesselmann transformed the Matisse odalisque into a pop icon. Matisse’s work will remain a central reference for the American in his search for visual efficiency and saturation of the image. Demonstration at the Matisse Museum in Nice.
Special envoy to Nice
Who will recognize the voluptuous odalisque dear to Matisse (1869-1954), in his period in Nice, in this Big Nude from 2002 to the raw flesh and direct line of Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004)? The first is of a soft, round, full eroticism, an immodest invitation to the shelter of an opulent, cozy and closed interior like in an oriental tale, secret of the bodies behind the moucharabiehs. The second is sharp, in intense tints, like the tan areas of a sportswoman or a pin-up girl exposed to the harsh New World sun. An echo to be deciphered from this American cousin. Wesselmann still remains to be discovered for many, because you have to go back to 1980 to find an exhibition dedicated to him in France, at the Mamac in Nice, a mecca for American Pop Art and the New French Realists.
Debates! This crossed look, decried by certain eminent Matisseans, is the subject of an exhibition in the form of a demonstration at the Matisse Museum in Nice. Through a selection of 43 works…
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