Gift of the artist to the present owner

Minneapolis, Dayton's Gallery; Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tom Wesselmann, March - July 1968, p. 9, illustrated (another example exhibited)
Tokyo, Isetan Museum of Art; Sapporo, Museum of Contemporary Art; Shiga, The Museum of Modern Art; Osaka, Museum of Art, Tom Wesselmann: A Retrospective Survey 1959-1992, September 1993 - March 1994, cat. no. 19, pp. 64-65, illustrated in color
Kunsthalle Tubingen; Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts; Berlin, Altes Museum; Munich, Museum Villa Stück; Kunsthal Rotterdam; Speyer, Historiches Museum der Pfalz; Paris, Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain; Madrid, Fundación Juan March; Barcelona, Palau de la Virreina; Lisbon, Culturgest; Nice, Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain, Tom Wesselmann: A Retrospective Survey 1959-1993, April 1994 - January 1997, pl. 27, illustrated in color
Rome, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Tom Wesselmann, June - September 2005, p. 72, illustrated in color (another example exhibited)

Slim Stealingworth, Tom Wesselmann, New York, 1980, pp. 41-43, illustrated in color
Sam Hunter, Tom Wesselmann, New York, 1994, cat. no. 7, p. 12, illustrated in color

This work is in very good condition overall and in good working order. There is evidence of light wear and handling along the edges. There are several scattered and unobtrusive surface accretions and light abrasions visible under close inspection. There is a puncture beneath the right corner of the radio and two slight cracks to the shelf of the right side, inherent to the plastic extrusion process and original to the work. Framed. Please note that the Wesselmann Studio and Estate would be happy to consult and advise the buyer on upgrading the electrical components. The colors are much brighter than they appear in the catalogue illustration. Please refer to laitexier.com for the correct coloring.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Still Life #46 is one of Tom Wesselmann’s most iconic still life works and embodies a pivotal shift in the artist’s trajectory. Executed in 1964, Still Life #46 represents the exact moment in which Wesselmann reigned in the compositional structure of these works, presenting the quotidian objects themselves (rather than the environments in which these objects were placed) as the sole emphasis and focus of the work. As the oft-told story goes, Wesselmann was at his plastic manufacturer’s warehouse in Brooklyn when he spotted a “big, corny, red plastic relief apple. When he placed it on a shelf with a white background [at his home], it had such a visually intense presence to him that he felt staggered” (Slim Stealingworth, Tom Wesselmann, New York, 1980, p. 43). This shining, flattened, hyperrealist apple, the very object which changed the course of Wesselmann’s career, is prominently featured in Still Life #46, resulting in what Stealingworth would only describe as “the most physically intense version of the object” (ibid., p. 43) possible, even further intensified through its mechanical illumination. Imitating the form of an illuminated gas station sign, Still Life #46 epitomizes Wesselmann’s search for such a heightened “intensity” through the use of a simplified and brightly colored visual vocabulary that speaks to an era of rising consumerism in America.

Wesselmann presented Still Life #46 as a wedding gift to Jerome and Helen Goodman in November 1967. Their union itself owes its beginning to Wesselmann. He introduced his close scientist and photographer friend Jerry to Helen, who had modeled for him on occasion, at a party in Claes Oldenburg's studio in 1967. Since Jerry's photos documented so much of Wesselmann's studio practice in the 1960s and 1970s, and Helen served as the figure for some of Wesselmann's earliest works and Helen Nude (1981), it is only fitting that Wesselmann gifted this seminal 🗹work to the new couple.