Pop Art was the dominant movement in early-1960s American art. Short for “popular art,” it featured common household objects and consumer products like Coca-Cola and Campbell’s Soup cans, as well as forms of media—such as comics, newspapers, and magazines—recognizable to the masses. Artists often created Pop works using mechanical or commercial techniques. 

The greatest and most celebrated Pop artist was the American artist, Andy Warhol.

Not often discussed is the fact that Pop Art originated in the mid 1950s in England, but realized its fullest potential in New York in the '60s where it shared, with Minimalism, the attentions of the art world. “

In Pop Art, the epic was replaced with the everyday and the mass-produced awarded the same significance as the unique; the gulf between "high art'' and "low art'' was eroding away”. 

Tom Wesselmann was born on February 23, 1931, in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

He studied psychology at the University of Cincinnati before taking art courses. In 1961, he moved to New York City, abandoning the abstract expressionist style and turning to Pop Art. 

 He is known for his series "The Great American Nude," which includes overtly erotic female nudes (very Odalisque-like) in bright, primary colors. Wesselmann died in New York City in 2004.

 In this artwork, Tom Wesselmann painted an unclothed blonde woman lying, as the title says, on a blanket with floral prints. The main focus point of the artwork is the woman who is positioned at the very center of the painting. The painting is cut by a diagonal created by her positioning. Her body separates the painting in two parts: the foreground and the background.

In the foreground we can se a pot of flowers and what seems to be a framed painting/picture. In the background we see sand, then the sea followed by the sun, which is setting. 

 There is no movement in the painting as it is an “Odalisque”, however the various bright colors is visually stimulating and can give a dynamic aspect to it.  The colors used are very bold and bright. The main colors found in the painting are red, blue and green but also orange, turquoise, dark red, and white which plays a role of dimension and value in the painting. The color composition of the woman’s body next to the blanket’s that is colorful and printed and creates an effect of contrast and makes her main focus. 

Despite the very bright and intense colors that give an impression of dynamism, the painting is quite still and calm. The painting represents a woman relaxing near the beach. Wesselmann is known to concentrate on very few details and focus on the general ideas. That explains why only the woman’s outline is painted and a few characteristics of the female body (areolas, full lips, pubic hair) and therefor makes the painting look as if it was based on shapes (organic for most part).

 In this artwork, Wesselmann combined painting and collage. The foreground (the milkshake, the pear, the roses, the Coca Cola bottle, the cigarettes and the walnuts) is strictly composed of pictures (collage). The background however, is painted (flower vase and wall/wallpaper). 

There is no movement in the painting as it a still life, however the various bright colors and the curved lines (the viewer’s eye is continuously on the more) on the wall are visually stimulating and can give a dynamic aspect to it.  All elements of the artwork are gathered in the center. 

As it is a Pop art piece, the colors are very bright and bold. The colors being colorful and the elements of the work of art being everyday life objects, the mood that is set is fresh, playful but also alluring, as they are everyday life objects that represent the “American Dream” (Coca Cola bottle, Milkshake, Cigarettes).  As most of the elements constituting the artwork are pictures, there is already shading to emphasize form and depth (3D).