John Wesley (artist)

John Wesley
Born
John Mercer Wesley

(1928-11-25)November 25, 1928
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
DiedFebruary 10, 2022(2022-02-10) (aged 93)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Known forPainting
MovementPop art, surrealism, erotic art
Spouses
Alice Richter
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(m. 1947; div. 1959)​
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(m. 1959; div. 1970)​
​
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(m. 1971; died 1996)​
PartnerPatricia Broderick (1997–2003; her death)
Children2
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship, American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Endowment for the Arts
John Wesley. Daddy's Home, acrylic on canvas, 39" x 65", 1972.

John Wesley (November 25, 1928 – February 10, 2022) was an American painter, known for idiosyncratic figurative works of eros and humor, rendered in a precise, hard-edged, deadpan style.[1][2][3] Wesley's art largely remained true to artistic premises that he established in the 1960s: a comic-strip style of flat shapes, delicate black outline, a limited matte palette of saturated colors, and elegant, pared-down compositions.[4][5] His characteristic subjects included cavorting nymphs, nudes, infants and animals, pastoral and historical scenes, and 1950s comic strip characters in humorously blasphemous, ambiguous scenarios of forbidden desire, rage or despair.[6][7][8][9]

Early on, art critics categorized Wesley as a Pop artist, due to his appropriation of the visual language and, at times, iconography of popular culture.[9][8][10] Later critics, however, regarded him as an art outsider whose work eluded categorization, noting among other things, his psychological plumbing of a (largely male) American unconscious, formal affinities with abstraction, and wide-ranging art-historical borrowings.[11][12][6][13] Artforum's Jenifer Borum described Wesley's work as combining "a Pop vocabulary, a refined Minimal sensibility, and a surrealistic proclivity for uncanny juxtapositions,"[9] while Dave Hickey likened him to an eighteenth-century Rococo "fabulist," citing his penchant for erotic narrative.[7]

Wesley's work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art,[14] MoMA PS1,[15] Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Portikus (Frankfurt), and the Chinati Foundation, among others.[16][17] It belongs to public art collections including the Museum of Modern Art,[18] Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles,[19] and Whitney Museum.[20] In 1976, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.[21]

  1. ^ Kennedy, Randy. "An Artist Who Couldn't Be Pinned Down, Dies at 93," The New York Times, February 10, 2022. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
  2. ^ Greenberger, Alex. "John Wesley, Painter of Pop-Inflected Paintings with a Bite, Dies at 93," ARTnews, February 10, 2022. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
  3. ^ Plagens, Peter. "John Wesley," Artforum, May 1998. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  4. ^ Smith, Roberta. "John Wesley," Artforum, November 28, 2003. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  5. ^ Pagel, David. "Charm, Trauma Mix in Wesley Works," Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1992. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  6. ^ a b Schwendener, Martha. "John Wesley," Artforum, March 2004. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  7. ^ a b Hickey, Dave. "Touché Boucher: John Wesley's Gallant Subjects," Artforum, October 2000. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
  8. ^ a b Johnson, Ken. "John Wesley – Don't Eat My Eagle: Paintings From the 1960s," The New York Times, November 25, 2005. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  9. ^ a b c Borum, Jenifer P. "John Wesley," Artforum, Summer 1991. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  10. ^ Kennedy, Randy. "Pop and Rococo Meet and Greet," The New York Times, June 8, 2009. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
  11. ^ Kimmelman, Michael. "Wesley's Decorative Slant Lurks Amid the Abstract," The New York Times, March 20, 1990. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
  12. ^ Scott, Andrea K. "John Wesley – The Bumsteads," The New York Times, January 19, 2007. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  13. ^ Norden, Linda. "John Wesley," Artforum, September 2009. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  14. ^ Smith, Roberta. "Extraordinary Realities," Artforum, January 1974. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  15. ^ Kimmelman, Michael. "Comforting, Funny Outlandishness That Sticks to Its Own Logic," The New York Times, December 1, 2000. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
  16. ^ Stedelijk Museum. John Wesley, Collection. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
  17. ^ Chinati Foundation. John Wesley, Collection. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
  18. ^ Museum of Modern Art. John Wesley, Artists. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
  19. ^ Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles. John Wesley, Artists. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
  20. ^ Whitney Museum of American Art. John Wesley, Artists. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
  21. ^ John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. John Wesley, Retrieved September 28, 2022.