Dark Cakes and Pies
View Similar Items
Wayne ThiebaudDark Cakes and Pies2006
2006
About the Item
- Creator:Wayne Thiebaud (1920, American)
- Creation Year:2006
- Dimensions:Height: 30 in (76.2 cm)Width: 25.5 in (64.77 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU79598082
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.
- Gee, Merrie ShoesBy Andy WarholLocated in New York, NYMedium: Hand colored offset lithograph Frame size: 16 x 15 inches Stamped on verso by The Estate of Andy Warhol and The Warhol FoundationCategory
1950s American Modern Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLithograph
Price Upon Request - Bellini #5By Robert RauschenbergLocated in New York, NYFrame size: 61 7/8 x 41 inches Printer and Publisher: ULAE, West Islip, New York Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil, lower margin Provenance: The Emily Fisher Landau CollectionCategory
1980s Prints and Multiples
MaterialsIntaglio
Price Upon Request - Ellsworth Kelly, Westfalischer KunstvereinBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYPublisher: Westfalischer Kunstervein, Munster Signed in pencil on rectoCategory
1990s Prints and Multiples
MaterialsOffset
- Woman with Corset and Long HairBy Willem de KooningLocated in New York, NYPrinter: Hollanders Workshop, New York Publisher: Knoedler, New York Edition size: 61, plus proofs Catalogue Raisonné: Graham 17 Signed, dated, and numbered inpencil, lower marginCategory
1970s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Prints
MaterialsLithograph
Price Upon Request - Pear IIIBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYSheet size: 35 7/16 x 24 3/4 inches Frame size: 43 3/4 x 32 3/4 inches Printer: Imprimerie Arte, Paris Publisher: Maeght Éditeur, Paris Edition size: 75, plus proofs Catalogue Raison...Category
1960s Minimalist Still-life Prints
MaterialsLithograph
- WallBy Ellsworth KellyLocated in New York, NYFrame size: 34 1/2 x 31 inches Printer and Publisher: Tyler Graphics Ltd., Mt. Kisco, New York Catalogue Raisonné: Axsom 177 Signed and numbered in pencil, lower marginCategory
1970s Prints and Multiples
MaterialsEtching
Price Upon Request
- Robert Marx, Blind HunterLocated in New York, NYGerman-born Robert Ernst Marx was a painter, printmaker, and teacher. His main subject was the human condition. This intaglio is somewhat unusual in ...Category
1960s American Modern Figurative Prints
MaterialsIntaglio
- Peter Grippe, Symbolic GroupBy Peter GrippeLocated in New York, NYThis work is signed, titled, and dated, in pencil. Grippe was a master printer, highly creative printmaker, and sculptor.Category
1950s American Modern Figurative Prints
MaterialsIntaglio
- Stanley William Hayter, Holiday CardBy Stanley William HayterLocated in New York, NYBlack & Moorhead 158. In just the middle inch or so of this image Hayter has managed to draw in a female nude and a horse, with special attention to the head. It was Hayter's custom ...Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsIntaglio
- Stanley William Hayter, Le BecheBy Stanley William HayterLocated in New York, NYBlack & Moorhead 145. The title, Le Beche, is The Shovel in English. Signed and dated in pencil under image at right.Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsIntaglio
- Carolyn McArthur, (New York City Park)Located in New York, NYThis is a modernist view of a New York City park. It's interesting because we're given so much detail and yet it's drawing style also keep things hidden. Really I think it's about Cu...Category
1930s American Modern Abstract Prints
MaterialsIntaglio
- The SwanBy Ray H. FrenchLocated in Fairlawn, OHThe Swan Etching and soft ground intaglio, 1957 Signed and dated lower right (see photo) Titled and numbered lower left (see photo) From the second edition of 75 impressions, printed...Category
1950s American Modern Animal Prints
MaterialsIntaglio