Reading the Art World: Susan Davidson
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Listen to our latest podcast episode featuring Susan Davidson, curator and art historian, discussing her new book Tom Wesselmann: The Great American Nude, published by Gagosian and Almine Rech, in collaboration with the Estate of Tom Wesselmann. Distributed by Rizzoli International Publications, New York.
Davidson reveals the unexpected story behind one of Pop Art's most recognized series. Wesselmann arrived in New York with no art training and couldn't paint like his hero Willem de Kooning—a limitation that became the foundation for his distinctive approach. She traces how he built his visual language from found materials: candy wrappers, magazine clippings, working radios, even a leaf from his soup at Trader Vic's that ended up in his first portrait collage.
Our conversation examines how the Great American Nude series (1961-73) emerged from a color dream of red, white, and blue and evolved across one hundred works. Davidson discusses Wesselmann's strategic use of art history—placing reproductions of Matisse, Modigliani, and Rembrandt within his compositions as both homage and assertion of his place in their lineage. She illuminates the personal dimension often overlooked in these works: they were Wesselmann's sustained celebration of his relationship with Claire, his wife and inspiration.
For anyone interested in Pop Art's origins, how collections are built, or the ways personal vision intersects with cultural moment, this conversation offers valuable insights.
"He wasn't objectifying; he was actually celebrating his love and marriage with Claire. That's really what drove him in many ways."
– Susan Davidson
About the Author
Curator and art historian Susan Davidson is an authority in the fields of Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art with a specialty in the art of Robert Rauschenberg. Davidson is also an accomplished museum professional with over thirty-year’s experience at two distinguished institutions: The Menil Collection, Houston, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.