Favorite Artists 6 - Wayne Thiebaud

For the sixth installment of my favorite artists, lets focus on Wayne Thiebaud (1920- ) a living American. Mr. Thiebaud is a well-known painter whose luscious color and simple shapes have found a wide audience. He became known six decades ago and has been active and working on the west coast throughout that time. As he has aged his work has been less noticed, it seems to me, but, he remains a real favorite of mine.

"Pies Pies Pies," 1961

My exposure to Mr. Thiebaud's work began with the earliest works, his delicious paintings of cakes and pies, which he began showing in the 1960s. Although his paintings of pastries, among other ordinary objects, predates Pop Art, inevitably he has been included as a member of that movement, and was exhibited initially with the likes of Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol among others. Subsequently he has often argued that he isn't one of them and even objected to being included with Andy Warhol. In any event, during his long career he has gone in several different directions, all of which have been visually and aesthetically satisfying.

Mr. Thiebaud spent his entire career (except brief interludes) in California, where he trained at San Jose State and Sacramento State, and later became a long-serving professor at the University of California, Davis. He has been working as an artist at least since high school, when he spent summers apprenticing at Disney Studios. He was even an artist during his World War II service. According to artist acquaintances who have met him, Mr. Thiebaud is a genuinely humble and warm individual whose work and teaching have influenced hundreds.

Early works like "Pies Pies Pies" (above) have a distinct resemblance to advertising, at first glance, complete with bright lighting and dark shadows. But the more one looks, the more interesting the pies become, the shadows varying widely from plate-to-plate, the pies and crusts vibrating with complements, slathered down with brush strokes as luscious as whipped cream. He was said to have been so delighted with this painting that he laughed out loud. One can see why. The repetitive, simple shapes, the deceptively similar slices of pie, the different shadow colors and hints simply make me smile every time I look at the work.

"Two Paint Cans," 1987

Another favorite of mine is the dazzling "Two Paint Cans," from 1987. In this one the colors are deliciously saturated, the reflective paint cans dripping complementary colors on opposite sides, one topless and the other yet to be opened. In this as in all of his work, the paint itself is a celebrated part of the work, applied in thick, delighted strokes. The shadows themselves show opposite color temperatures--the reflected shadows on the cans are a warm dark brown but the cast shadows behind the cans are a deep cold navy blue. Mr. Thiebaud's sense of color and brushwork has always been dazzling to me.

"24th Street Intersection," 1977

Around a decade earlier Mr. Thiebaud had begun painting cityscapes of the dizzying San Francisco Hills, first with "Potrero Street," and then "24th Street Intersection," (right) which always makes me feel as if I'm falling. He went on to paint quite a few others, each providing a vertiginous view of the hills of the city. He continued these cityscapes of San Francisco, along with still life, during the 1980s and 1990s, adding the occasional beach scene, with crowds, and a whole body of work with an airborne viewpoint.

"Farm Channel," 1996

The cityscapes are deceptive, it seems to me, because they're actually composed of simple shapes that come near to abstraction. They work on both a realist level and an abstract one, which is a delight to see. He manipulates our perception and gives the receptive viewer much to contemplate. In some of the early cityscapes like "24th Street Intersection," too, there seems to be a debt to Edward Hopper, but perhaps that's simply the Queen Anne architecture. Many times too when looking at these particular works by Mr. Thiebaud, one sees something of the work of Richard Diebenkorn's Ocean Park series.

Besides paint itself and as itself, clearly simple shapes and their arrangements fascinated the artist, as they have kept me staring more than once. Although firmly in the representational camp of artists rather than abstractionists, Mr. Thiebaud's pleasure in paint and its application is very appealing and his dedication to simplicity and colors continue to make me smile.
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Previously
Favorite Artists
Favorite Artists 2
Favorite Artists 3--Grant Wood
Favorite Artists 4--Diego Velazquez
Favorite Artists 5--Andrew Wyeth