Dark Cupcakes and Donuts
View Similar Items
Wayne ThiebaudDark Cupcakes and Donuts2006
2006
About the Item
- Creator:Wayne Thiebaud (1920, American)
- Creation Year:2006
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU4842024113
Wayne Thiebaud
Wayne Thiebaud’s pastel-hued still-life paintings and prints of baked goods, gumball machines, hot dogs and paint cans are often associated with the Pop art movement, thanks to the mass-cultural appeal of their content. Stylistically, however, Thiebaud eschewed the precision found in the art of such Pop giants as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol in favor of a more painterly approach, not unlike that of the Italian modernist Giorgio Morandi, whose dreamy paintings of vessels and household objects are simple yet richly atmospheric.
Thiebaud was born in Mesa, Arizona, in 1920 and grew up in Southern California from the age of six months. As a high schooler, he had a summer apprenticeship at Walt Disney Studios, which led to a stint as a graphic artist in the U.S. Army Air Forces’ First Motion Picture Unit during World War II. After the war, he attended the California State College at Sacramento on the G.I. Bill, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1951 and earning a master’s soon after. He went on to teach at the University of California, Davis, from 1960 to ’91.
In the late ’50s, time spent living in New York City proved crucial to Thiebaud’s career. There, he befriended Abstract Expressionist painters Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline and drew inspiration from the work of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Admiring the color and form on display in New York’s many bakeries, he began painting small canvases featuring rows of treats, which would become one of his central subjects. Though Thiebaud himself doesn’t identify as a Pop artist, the first major exhibition that brought him national renown was a seminal 1962 Pop show at the Sidney Janis Gallery in Manhattan. That same year, he was included in "New Painting of Common Objects” at the Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena, which also featured paintings by Ed Ruscha and Jim Dine. Iconic works such as Pie Counter (1963) demonstrate Thiebaud’s signature treatment of commonplace items with the grandeur and scale of a landscape.
Thiebaud’s interest in exaggerated colors and vernacular subject matter — characteristics that call to mind images found in mid-century advertising — made him an intriguing figure occupying the hazy borderlands between fine and commercial art. Yet through a masterful handling of paint, evocative use of light and poignant sense of isolation, Thiebaud’s work is unquestionably thoughtful and singular. His later forays into landscape painting, as seen in Steep Street (1989) or Country City (1988), bring to bear his bold use of color on complex urban scenes.
Pieces by Thiebaud can be found in the collections of major museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, among many others. In 1994, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton.
Find original Wayne Thiebaud art on 1stDibs.
- Dark Gumball MachineBy Wayne ThiebaudLocated in New York, NYWayne Thiebaud Dark Gumball Machine, 1964/ 2017 Hard ground and soft ground etching 18h x 12w inCategory
1660s Post-War Still-life Prints
MaterialsEtching
Price Upon Request - MidnightBy Helen FrankenthalerLocated in New York, NYDESCRIPTION aquatint and drypoint printed in colors, signed in pencil, dated, numbered 43/71 (total edition includes eight artist's proofs), on Magnani wove paper, with the blindstam...Category
1980s Post-War Abstract Prints
MaterialsDrypoint, Aquatint
Price Upon Request - Wind DirectionsBy Helen FrankenthalerLocated in New York, NYHelen Frankenthaler Wind Directions, 1970 Color Pochoir 30.50h x 22.25w inCategory
1970s Post-War Abstract Prints
MaterialsMonoprint
- High WindowBy Anthony CaroLocated in New York, NYCast and Welded BronzeCategory
1970s Post-War Abstract Sculptures
MaterialsBronze
Price Upon Request - LibertyBy Dan ChristensenLocated in New York, NYAcrylic on CanvasCategory
1980s Post-War Abstract Paintings
MaterialsAcrylic
Price Upon Request - UntitledBy Friedel DzubasLocated in New York, NYFriedel Dzubas untitled, 1974 acrylic on canvas 4h x 18w inCategory
1970s Post-War Abstract Paintings
MaterialsAcrylic
Price Upon Request
- VOTE by Jonas WoodBy Jonas WoodLocated in Morton Grove, IL6-color screen print on Coventry rag paper 15.75 x 10 inches Edition of 300 Signed, dated and numbered on recto in pencil In originally packing and never removed.Category
2010s Post-War More Prints
MaterialsScreen
Price Upon Request - Steinberg, Illustration, Derrière le miroir (after)By Saul SteinbergLocated in Auburn Hills, MILithograph on wove paper. Inscription: Signed in the plate and unnumbered; text on verso, as issued. Good Condition; with centerfold, as issued. Notes: From Derrière le miroir, N° 15...Category
1960s Post-War Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Steinberg, Illustration, Derrière le miroir (after)By Saul SteinbergLocated in Auburn Hills, MILithograph on wove paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered; text on verso, as issued. Excellent Condition. Notes: From Derrière le miroir, N° 157, published by Derrière le miroir...Category
1960s Post-War Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Steinberg, Illustration, Derrière le miroir (after)By Saul SteinbergLocated in Auburn Hills, MILithograph on wove paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered; text on verso, as issued. Good Condition. Notes: From Derrière le miroir, N° 157, published by Derrière le miroir, Par...Category
1960s Post-War Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Steinberg, Illustration, Derrière le miroir (after)By Saul SteinbergLocated in Auburn Hills, MILithograph on wove paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered; text on verso, as issued. Good Condition. Notes: From Derrière le miroir, N° 157, published by Derrière le miroir, Par...Category
1960s Post-War Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- Tàpies, Composition, Derrière le miroir (after)By Antoni TàpiesLocated in Auburn Hills, MILithograph on wove paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered. Good Condition; with centerfold, as issued. Notes: From Derrière le miroir, N° 207, published by Derrière le miroir, P...Category
1970s Post-War Still-life Prints
MaterialsLithograph