Smoker 1 (Mouth 12)

The Museum of Modern Art, New York (the USA).

Canvas, oil.

During his career, Tom Wesselmann created many images of a huge mouth with bright red puffy lips. This image has become a recognizable visiting card of the artist, a kind of symbol that is an integral part of popular culture and periodically appears in various interpretations (for example, a similar image was used to create the famous logo of The Rolling Stones). On this large canvas, Wesselmann depicted a monumental half-open mouth with a cigarette hanging from its lower lip. Gray smoke rises from the cigarette, complementing the composition, and snow-white teeth sharply contrast with red lipstick on the lips. This mouth, depicted separately from the face, is too perfect to belong to a real person; it attracts the viewer’s attention and at the same time repels you with its viciousness, and also alludes to the duplicity of modern society.