Tom Wesselmann hailed from the only state that's round on both sides and high in the middle.

That’s right, Ohio adores the man, throwing him a big retrospective at the Cincinnati Art Museum in 2014. After all, it’s not everyday a country-music-loving, denim-shirt-wearing psychology student waltzes out of the Midwest and right into the New York City art scene’s top tiers. Unfortunately, the love was a bit of a one-way street. Wesselmann was notoriously bitter about his upbringing, once saying “In Cincinnati, I was unaware of the existence of art. I thought all artists painted like Norman Rockwell.” No hard feelings, Rockwell. Wholesome Midwest family scenes just weren’t Wesselmann’s cup of tea.

You see, Wesselmann was more interested in naked ladies. After moving to New York in 1956 and dabbling in cartooning, he painted hundreds of them for his first serious artistic effort - the Great American Nude series. The title is a mildly tongue-in-cheek reference to 1960s America’s dissociation from European culture, which gave rise to patriotic catchphrases like “the Great American Novel.” Wesselmann mixed classical European odalisques with all he considered great and American: television, fast food, branding, cigarettes, and tan lines. Pasting in real advertisement clippings infused his works with the bright immediacy of commercial culture. But of course, the nudes are the stars of the show. With bold colors and crude imagery, Wesselmann puts every intimacy on full display - just like a magazine, tabloid, or comic would in American society.

Problematic? Maybe. Reducing the female body to the erotic essentials sure strikes me as morally iffy. But Wesselmann insisted his intent was to celebrate sexuality, not objectify. It’s also possible he didn’t care what people thought of him, anyway. Even while immersed in New York’s glitz and glam, he continued wearing denim, eating popcorn and vegetarian hot dogs, and lamenting his own lost potential as a country music singer until he passed away in 2004. Say what you will about Ohio, Wesselmann. I think it still had your heart.