Still life with a blue can and a smoking cigarette

Private collection.

Oil, canvas (four separate sections).

In the works of Tom Wesselmann of the 1980s, you can often find interesting compositions that consist of several separate canvases of an unusual shape. Usually, those are all the same objects that the author loved: smoking cigarettes, women’s lips and breasts, meal and small household items, like lipstick or sunglasses. The artist created still lifes from these objects, placing them directly on the gallery floor. All of them are large and make a tremendous impression on the viewer, who thinks that these huge things just separated from the wall and are moving right on it.