Historic Dialogue in the East Village: Tom Wesselmann’s Estate Joins Tomokazu Matsuyama in the Pop-Art Icon’s Studio

The estate of pop artist Tom Wesselmann (1931–2004) has joined Japanese-American artist Tomokazu Matsuyama for a special exhibition in Wesselmann’s former studio in New York’s East Village. It is the first time such a collaboration has taken place in the space where the artist lived during the last decade of his life, turning his workplace into a stage for dialogue between two different generations.

The exhibition «Wesselmann X Matsuyama», supported by the Almine Rech gallery, features 7 works by Wesselmann — from the 1960s to 2003, a year before his death — and 5 works by Matsuyama, all made in the last two years, three of them created specifically for the 4,000-square-foot studio. Matsuyama’s new works reference Wesselmann’s imagery on shaped canvases, a format Wesselmann often used, weaving references to Matisse, Yves Klein, Whistler, Raphael and Pieter Claesz with Japanese textile motifs.

The show’s most striking pairing sets Wesselmann’s «Still Life #35» (1963) — a 16-foot-wide canvas depicting a supermarket loaf of bread, a pack of cigarettes and a Royal Crown cola six-pack — against Matsuyama’s «We the People» (2025), slightly larger. Matsuyama’s work restages Jacques-Louis David’s «The Death of Socrates» (1787) (from the Met’s collection) in a supermarket aisle: Socrates drinks a cup of Froot Loops instead of hemlock, with diabetes medication on the shelf behind him — Greek philosophy meets contemporary consumerism.

Also included are two of Wesselmann’s «Bedroom Paintings» — a series begun in 1967, with close-up views of the female body beside nightstand objects; «Bedroom Painting #19» (1969) depicts the artist’s own erect penis — works suited to the studio’s intimate atmosphere. The studio still holds Wesselmann’s personal effects: works, brushes, paint tubes, even gloves marked «TR» (Tom’s right hand) and «TL» (left).

The collaboration grew out of an invitation from the Wesselmann estate to Matsuyama to create new works for the 2024 exhibition «Pop Forever, Tom Wesselmann &…» at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris (alongside Derrick Adams, Jeff Koons and Mickalene Thomas) — an approach ARTnews called a “clever approach.” Matsuyama described exhibiting in another artist’s workspace as “like wearing someone else’s underwear and saying it’s yours!”, noting that the artistic research took longer than painting the works themselves. Jeffrey Sturges of the Wesselmann estate was surprised by the depth of Matsuyama’s engagement but remains reserved about taking the exhibition on tour — the specific location is itself the appeal; he calls the exhibition “a proposal” and “an exciting way to see art.”

The market also speaks to growing interest: Matsuyama’s auction record is $647,125 (Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 2023), with 33 works sold in the six figures; Wesselmann has 65 works above $1 million and a record of $10.7 million (Sotheby’s New York, 2008). The exhibition is open to the public by appointment through September 27.

Source: ARTnews