John Wesley (painter)
John Wesley (born November 25, 1928 in Los Angeles , California ; lives in New York City ) is an American contemporary painter and printmaker . He is considered to be an independent artist in his style, inspired by comics , who, with his American themes and the often obsessive eroticism in his art , has decisively shaped Pop Art and younger generations of painters.
life and work
John Wesley studied from 1946 to 1950 at Los Angeles City College and at the University of California in Los Angeles. After a number of odd jobs, John Wesley began painting in 1950.
His first exhibition consisted mainly of large-format paintings in acrylic on which he depicted imaginary and fictional seals and stamps. His pictures from this time were limited in their color spectrum. His characters, which he later painted, had echoes of comic pictures and cartoons, and his painting developed in the direction of an independent variant of Pop Art in the 1960s. His artistic technique often seems to be more closely related to minimalism . John Wesley was friends with artists such as Dan Flavin and Donald Judd .
Wesley himself brought his work closer to surrealism in terms of content , and many of his paintings since the 1960s have developed this surrealist dimension even further, while at the same time he continues to paint with only a very limited selection of colors and characters, as well as very flat. He created undeterred by all contemporary fashions, a continuous painterly work over decades. Wesley's paintings, sometimes full of obsessive eroticism, are dedicated to comics and the, often humorous and satirical, commentary on American " everyday life ".
John Wesley took part in Documenta 5 in Kassel in 1972 in the Realism department with some pictures .
To this day he has exhibitions in major museums and galleries around the world.
In 2000, a major retrospective of his work was held at the PS1 Contemporary Art Center . Wesley designed the cover of the catalog for the Armory Show in 2006.
John Wesley received the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1976 , the National Endowment for the Arts Grant in 1989, the American Academy of Arts and Letters , Purchase Award in 1998 and 2004 , and the Skowhegan Award for Artistic Achievement, Medal in 2005 in painting.
Literature and Sources
- Exhibition catalog: documenta 5. Survey of Reality - Imagery Today. Catalog (as a file folder) Volume 1: (Material); Volume 2: (List of exhibits), Kassel 1972.
- documenta archive (ed.); Resubmission d5 - A survey of the archive on documenta 1972. Kassel / Ostfildern 2001, ISBN 3-7757-1121-X .
- Martin Hentschel (Ed.): John Wesley: works on paper since 1960. (Catalog for the exhibition: John Wesley: Works on Paper since 1960, Museum Haus Lange, October 30, 2005 - January 29, 2006; Kunsthalle Nürnberg, February 16 - April 23, 2006). Bielefeld 2005, ISBN 3-938025-53-0 .
Web links
- Literature by and about John Wesley in the catalog of the German National Library
- ArtNet
- 2006 Armory Show
- Wesley's page at Fredericks and Freiser
- Materials by and about John Wesley in the documenta archive
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wesley, John |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American painter and printmaker |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 25, 1928 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Los Angeles , USA |