Still Life #10

During the 1960s, Wesselmann produced still-life tableaux that successfully epitomized the defining characteristics of Pop art: bright colors, sharp graphics, use of mass media materials, celebration of American consumerist culture and elevation of the mundane. Depicted in Still Life #10 is a view of an interior of an American. The bright collage elements bespeak a clean, prosperous contemporary environment--the kind that one might see in the large slick color magazines of the period, advertising to the new consumer culture the style of life to which they were meant to aspire to. On the checkered tablecloth, one sees large emblems signifying food products such as Delmonte catsup and Weetabix biscuits and Philip Morris amid silhouettes of other consumer goods. The invitation to consume, to take pleasure in the act of eating and smoking, is made more alluring by the bright commercial labels taken from the actual packages against a cotton-candy pink amorphous silhouetted forms. Behind this table of plentitude (visual and otherwise), is a backdrop that domesticates potent symbols of America, namely the American flag and the portrait of President John F. Kennedy. The stars of the flag become the wallpaper pattern while the stripes metamorphose into swaying curtains. The portrait of the then President of the United States is quaintly framed in a gilt frame, the young president's handsome face instantly updating the older precedent of Gilbert Stuart's celebrated portrait of George Washington.

In the present work, Wesselmann made a great effort to present a seamlessly perfect image of the American domestic interior. Upon closer inspection, the range of different kinds of materials used to create Still Life #10 is astonishing, such as silver foil for the star wallpaper, commercial packaging, and of course, linoleum for the floor. In order to replicate his ideal American home, Wesselmann searched high and low for pictorial sources as well as unconventional artistic materials. According to the artist, the present work was the result of an experimentation he executed by incorporating the Great American Nude, another celebrated series, into a Still Life. His explanation clarifies the reason of the schematic outlines of the pink area bears a strong resemblance to one of his reclining nudes.

From this work, it is clear that Wesselmann's exuberant patriotism is sincere; and in retrospect, it becomes touchingly poignant. It was only one year later, when the nation faced an almost insurmountable tragedy of President Kennedy's assassination. When compared to Rauschenberg's elegiac portrait of the President in his Retroactive paintings done after Kennedy's death, the Wesselmann's Still Life #10 still holds the promise of a shining future for America with the President leading the way. Wesselmann achieves a brilliant portrayal of American hopes and desires, channeled through consumer goods and material objects, which are laid out for the eager consumption by the public.