Ray Smith

Sueño de un Boy Scout by Ray Smith surreal nude print in green and yellow

1988-89

An erotic dalliance between a nude blonde woman lying down, and nude man, on a bed with white sheets. Subtle shades of peach, tan, yellow, and grey and black shadow behind the couple...

This large scale, ethereal portrait depicts a tranquil male nude figure floating in pink and blue. Based on a tempera painting, an expressionist, emotive piece to bring dramatic impa...

A colorful erotic daydream drawing of a nude blonde fantasizing, with a redhead woman, and man. Green and purple patterns on hair and pillows, and art deco motifs, adorn this sensual...

This cheeky, bright yellow print is from the Oo La La portfolio of 15 lithographs printed offset from zinc plates, drawn by both artists. Produced in collaboration with Ron Padgett...

This cheeky, pastel pink print depicts a range of intimate styles, a tongue-in-cheek recollection of the gridded haircuts displayed outside barber shops. It is from the Oo La La portfolio of 15 lithographs printed offset from zinc plates, drawn by both artists. Produced in collaboration with Ron Padgett...

This etching features a nude woman in high heels. Whipping her head to the left, she gazes intently past the viewer through a wild tangle of tresses. A sunhat with a bow nearly floats off her head, a tongue-in-cheek nod to modesty. Taking a wide stance, she straddles a comically large phallus, which springs up eagerly from the ground like a plant. Unusually, this etching was drawn directly onto the plate from the artist’s imagination and not from a life model. This spontaneity is visible around the woman’s bust and arms, where Oldenburg sketched several variations of her anatomy, giving the impression of a figure in movement. Beside her left breast, Oldenburg extends this halo of lines by cheekily doodling a small, floating phallus. Paper 36 x 27.5 in. / 91.4 x 69.2 cm. Plate 23.5 x 17.7 in. / 59.7 x 45.1 cm. Etching in one color on white, thick, slightly textured Wookey Hole handmade paper watermarked with the artist’s signature. Signed by the artist and dated 1975 lower right in pencil. The edition of 60 includes ten prints in each of six different ink colors: Indigo blue, vermilion, mauve, burnt sienna, astral blue, and yellow-ochre. A copy of each color is available: this listing is for one copy in the color of your choice. As recorded in the artist’s unpublished notes: “In 1974 an ambitious project for a suite of large-scale etchings was hatched with Paul Cornwall-Jones, for production by Maurice Payne in Petersburg Press’s new Pembroke studios in London. The project would consist of meticulous transcriptions of a certain group of drawings...

Study for Sunset Nude with Abstract Painting (Lying on Side). Original ink and colored pencil on Tracing Paper, 2002. Tom Wesselmann is one of the biggest American pop artists today....

Monica Nude with Lichtenstein. Original color silkscreen on cardboard, 2002. Edition of 60 signed and numbered impressions on a cardboard. Tom Wesselmann is one of the biggest American pop artists today. Even he did not like being labeled a pop artist, it is hard to imagine that his artworks featuring consumer goods and assorted American icons would be considered anything but pop art. At first he was a follower of abstract expressionism, but later switched to figurative art. In the late ‘50s he produced a series of small format collages, which became the basis for his future nudes and still lifes. In 1963 he married Claire Selley, his most faithful model from the series ‘Great American Nude’, and other nudes. In his search for creative styles he began to produce three-dimensional works with the technique of assemblage, using everyday objects such as telephones and televisions. In the ‘Still Life’ series he used advertising techniques and complemented traditional still lifes with mass consumption items taken directly from ads. In the ‘80s he began to work with metals and produced original works with a special laser. Over the next two decades he returned to large formats and the theme of the nude from the ‘60s, rounding off his career with The ‘Sunset Nude’ series, inspired by the works of Matisse. Tom Wesselmann went down in history as one of the greatest representatives of pop art due to his exciting commercial images, his aggressive intervention in three dimensions, his choice of trivial motifs, their monumentalisation, the use of stereotypes as a basis for his work and the choice of strong colors. Wesselmann’s aesthetic usage of everyday objects was done not in criticism of American consumerism and culture, but as a way to render Classical genres modern so as to explore the gap between art and contemporary life. He has a series that incorporated iconic paintings by other artists, including Lichtenstein, Warhol, and Matisse, juxtaposing with his famous nudes...

Study for Drop-out Nude with Pink Stockings. Original colored pencil on Tracing Paper, 1984. Tom Wesselmann is one of the biggest American pop artists today. Even he did not like bei...

Study for Sunset Nude (Variation 5). Original ink and colored pencil on Tracing Paper, 2002. Tom Wesselmann is one of the biggest American pop artists today. Even he did not like bei...

Screenprint on BFK paper, UNIQUE proof authenticated by the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts

Blue Socks. Original color liquitex on Ragboard, 1968. Tom Wesselmann is one of the biggest American pop artists today. Even he did not like being labeled a pop artist, it is hard to...