Flora Bigai Arte Contemporanea devoted an outstanding solo exhibition to this artist, taking place both in Pietrasanta and, concurrently with the Biennale, in Venice, the first European town to pay homage to Pop Art masters in 1964.

The most elegant (and in a certain sense the most 'European') of the American Pops, Wesselmann is almost the continuation of Matisse's 'modern classicism'. On display in Venice four huge Sunset Nudes, oils on canvas constructed in clean flat fields of colour, with an erotic freshness and a delicate naturalism, painted in recent years and now visible only in the major museums of the world. Other very recent works are exhibited for the first time in Italy, made of cut-out and painted aluminum plates: compositions that could be described as abstract, but which retain a fascinating allusiveness. We find also the Smokers, gigantic female lips from which lit and smoking cigarettes hang. 

In Pietrasanta, a series of different works by Wesselmann are presented: several sketches and colored drawings, plus small oils on canvas from the 1970s, but also the female nudes and, together, the 'maquettes' of so-called abstract works stand out.

The catalog of the show, published by Charta, presents an extensive critical monograph edited by Danilo Eccher. In it the works exhibited both in Venice and in Pietrasanta are studied and published. Furthermore, an extensive introductory note is dedicated to the artist's entire life and production.