File:John Wesley The Aviator's Daughters 1963.jpg

Painting by John Wesley, The Aviator's Daughters (Duco and oil on canvas, 57" x 48", 1963). The image illustrates a key early body of work in John Wesley's career in the 1960s when he produced cartoonish paintings that were influenced by the deadpan imagery of Jasper Johns and related to work by Pop artists such as Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist and Andy Warhol. These paintings consisted of expressively posed group and individual portraits, historical personages, nude and semi-clothed figures and personified animals in vacant spaces, often framed by symmetrical, Art Nouveau-like borders of flowers, birds or—in this work— silhouetted World War I biplanes, creating a counterpoint of masculine and feminine. Works from this body of work was publicly exhibited in prominent exhibitions, discussed in major art journals and daily press publications and acquired major art institutions.

Artist John Wesley. Copyright held by the artist.

John Wesley (artist)

Entire artwork

Yes

The image serves an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating an early body of work in John Wesley's career in the 1960s: his paintings which already established the visual fixations, style and strange, idiosyncratic qualities that would characterize his work for several decades. In these paintings, he placed cartoonish, expressively posed group and individual portraits and historical figures in vacant spaces, often framed by symmetrical, Art Nouveau-like borders of flowers, birds or other objects. In the middle of the decade, this imagery gave way to unsettling erotic paintings of nude and semi-clothed figures and personified animals. Because the article is about an artist and his work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to understand this foundational stage and body of work, which brought Wesley initial recognition through exhibitions, coverage by major critics and publications, and museum acquiaitions. Wesley's work of this type and this series is discussed in the article and by critics cited in the article.

There is no free equivalent of this or any other of this series by John Wesley, so the image cannot be replaced by a free image.

The image will not affect the value of the original work or limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original due to its low resolution and the general workings of the art market, which values the actual work of art. Because of the low resolution, illegal copies could not be made.