John Wesley
JOHN WESLEY
Notre Dame, 1962
Duco and oil on canvas
66 x 66 inches
JOHN WESLEY
Shield for Kicking Machine, 1962
Duco and oil on canvas
24 x 24 inches
JOHN WESLEY
Clipper, 1962
Duco and oil on canvas
60 x 68 inches
JOHN WESLEY
Radcliffe Tennis Team, 1963
Duco and oil on canvas
68 x 60 inches
JOHN WESLEY
The Aviator's Daughters, 1963
Duco and oil on canvas
57 x 48 inches
Collection of John Wesley Foundation
JOHN WESLEY
Alice, 1965
Duco and oil on canvas
54 x 54 inches
JOHN WESLEY
Camel, 1966
Duco and oil on canvas
40.5 x 46 inches
JOHN WESLEY
Suitcase, 1964-1965
Oil on canvas and metal on leather suitcase
14.5 x 18.5 x 6.5
(side 1)
JOHN WESLEY
Suitcase, 1964-1965
Oil on canvas and metal on leather suitcase
14.5 x 18.5 x 6.5
(side 2)
JOHN WESLEY
Table, 1965
Duco and oil on canvas on wood
28 x 42 x 42 inches
(side 1)
JOHN WESLEY
Table, 1965
Duco and oil on canvas on wood
28 x 42 x 42 inches
(detail 1)
JOHN WESLEY
Table, 1965
Duco and oil on canvas on wood
28 x 42 x 42 inches
(detail 2)
JOHN WESLEY
Table, 1965
Duco and oil on canvas on wood
28 x 42 x 42 inches
(detail 3)
JOHN WESLEY
Table, 1965
Duco and oil on canvas on wood
31 x 30 x 30 inches
(side 1)
JOHN WESLEY
Table, 1965
Duco and oil on canvas on wood
31 x 30 x 30 inches
(side 2)
JOHN WESLEY
Untitled, 1961
Ink on paper
17 x 16.5 inches
JOHN WESLEY
Alice, 1962
Ink on paper
23 x 37.5 inches
JOHN WESLEY
Untitled, 1964
Ink on paper
24 x 20 inches
JOHN WESLEY
Untitled, 1963
Ink on paper
24 x 20 inches
JOHN WESLEY
Untitled, 1963
Acrylic and ink on paper
24 x 20 inches
JOHN WESLEY
Caddy, 1966
Duco and oil on canvas
31 x 38 inches
John Wesley
Important Works from 1961 to 1966
May 7 through June 13, 2015
Fredericks & Freiser is proud to announce John Wesley Important Works from 1961 to 1966. The exhibition will include paintings, drawings, and objects, many of which have not been exhibited in New York since the 1960s.
This exhibition examines Wesley's progression from his early heraldic paintings to cartoon figuration charged with memory and emotion. Wesley's first works are deadpan depictions of stamps, badges, shields, and emblems that imbue the mundane with personal and political meaning. Though formally linked to minimalism due to the essentiality and compositional rigor of Wesley's production, these paintings were celebrated by everyone from Donald Judd to Lucy Lippard as an important addition to Pop Art. However, Wesley’s direction was towards a more idiosyncratic narrative structure. Unlike his initial works in which popular iconography, particularly symbols of Americana, are used to critique a country that adorns itself with the quotidian, Wesley’s more narrative work appropriates traditional Pop subject matter such as Sunday comics and pin-up erotica. As seen together, the works collected for this exhibition underscore Wesley’s preeminence as a visionary artist whose often hermetic paintings strike at the psychological core of our most primal fears, joys, and desires.
About the Artist
John Wesley has been the subject of numerous museum retrospectives including the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, curated by Rudi Fuchs and Kasper Koenig (travelled to Portikus); DAAD, Berlin; PS1 MoMA, Long Island City, curated by Alana Heiss; Sert Gallery at the Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA, curated by Linda Norden; Kunstmuseen Krefeld/Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany, curated by Martin Henschel; Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX, curated by Marianne Stockebrand; and an enormous exhibition curated by Germano Celant for the Fondazione Prada at the 2009 Venice Biennale. He has a permanent installation of paintings in the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX. He has been exhibited and collected in numerous museums including The Menil Collection, Houston; MoCA, Los Angeles; MoMA, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art; Tate, Liverpool; Carnegie Museum of Art; and the Hirschorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. In 2014, Wesley was commissioned by High Line Art to create a public project for the High Line. This will be his eleventh solo show at Fredericks & Freiser.
Fredericks & Freiser is located at 536 West 24th Street, New York, NY. We are open Tuesday - Saturday, 10am - 6pm. For more information, please contact us by phone (212) 633 6555 or email info@fredericksfreisergallery.com, and visit us online at www.fredericksfreisergallery.com, and on Instagram @fredericksandfreiser.
