Skip to main content

Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

American, 1920-2021

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.

to
1
1
1
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
2
27
635
184
172
165
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
3
Artist: Wayne Thiebaud
Scarce offset lithograph: Cake Slices, for SFMOMA, Hand signed by Wayne Thiebaud
By Wayne Thiebaud
Located in New York, NY
Wayne Thiebaud Cake Slices, for the New SFMOMA (Hand signed by Wayne Thiebaud), 1996 Color Offset lithograph (hand signed by Wayne Thiebaud) B...
Category

1990s Pop Art Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Suckers State I
By Wayne Thiebaud
Located in New York, NY
A very good impression of this lithograph on Rives BFK. Signed, inscribed "state I" and numbered 111/150 in pencil. Printed and published by Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles, with the blin...
Category

1960s Pop Art Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Tulip Sundae
By Wayne Thiebaud
Located in Laguna Beach, CA
Best known for his paintings of cakes, pies, pastries, and toys, Wayne Thiebaud hadn’t planned on becoming a visual artist. He apprenticed as a cartoonist at Walt Disney studios and ...
Category

2010s Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

Materials

Drypoint, Aquatint

Related Items
Quarry
By Robert Rauschenberg
Located in Washington, DC
Artist: Robert Rauschenberg Title: Quarry Medium: Offset lithograph in colors Year: 1968 Edition: 500 Frame Size: 41 1/2" x 33" Sheet Size: 35 1/2" x 26 1/2" Signature: Signed in the...
Category

1960s Pop Art Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Quarry
Quarry
$2,445
H 41.5 in W 33 in
Nara Girl Banging On A Drum With Limited Edition Sticker Set Pop Art Print
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Draper, UT
Banging the Drum DETAILS 27 x 17 inches (unframed), 2020 Offset lithograph 80# Classic Linen Solar White Cover
Category

2010s Pop Art Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

GARDEN FLOWERS Hand Colored Lithograph with Pastel Drawing, Abstract Floral
By Peter Max
Located in Union City, NJ
GARDEN FLOWERS is an original hand drawn lithograph enhanced with hand coloring by the renowned American Pop artist, Peter Max. GARDEN FLOWERS was created in 1979 printed using tradi...
Category

1970s Pop Art Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

Materials

Pastel, Mixed Media, Lithograph

Large Italian Aquatint Etching Francesco Clemente Neo Expressionist Avant Garde
By Francesco Clemente
Located in Surfside, FL
Francesco Clemente (Italian b. 1952), 'This side up / Telemone #2, 1981 Medium: Intaglio hard ground etching, color aquatint, drypoint, and soft-ground etching with chine collé (ha...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

Materials

Drypoint, Etching, Aquatint, Intaglio

Horse Blinders (south) and Horse Blinders (east)
By James Rosenquist
Located in New York, NY
Lithograph and screenprint with collage (silver foil) Prints are different sizes: 36 1/2 x 68 inches (92.7 x 172.7 cm) and 36 5/8 x 64 inches (93 x 162.6 cm) Published by Multiples...
Category

1970s Pop Art Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

Materials

Silver

Canadian Post Modern Pop Art Lithograph Vintage Poster Memphis Galerie Maeght
By Jean-Paul Riopelle
Located in Surfside, FL
Vintage gallery exhibition poster. The Galerie Maeght is a gallery of modern art in Paris, France, and Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The gallery was founded in 1936 in Cannes. The Paris gallery was started in 1946 by Aimé Maeght. The artists exhibited are mainly from France and Spain. Since 1945, the gallery has presented the greatest modern artists such as Matisse, Bonnard, Braque, Miró, and Calder. In 1956, Adrien Maeght opened a new parisian venue. The second generation of “Maeght” artists was born: Bazaine, Andre Derain, Giacometti, Kelly, Raoul Ubac, then Riopelle, Antoni Tapies, Pol Bury and Adami, among others. Jean-Paul Riopelle, CC GOQ (7 October 1923 – 12 March 2002) was a painter and sculptor from Quebec, Canada. He became the first Canadian painter (since James Wilson Morrice) to attain widespread international recognition. Born in Montreal, Riopelle began drawing lessons in 1933 and continued through 1938. He studied engineering, architecture and photography at the école polytechnique in 1941. In 1942 he enrolled at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal but shifted his studies to the less academic école du Meuble, graduating in 1945. He studied under Paul-Émile Borduas in the 1940s and was a member of Les Automatistes movement. Breaking with traditional conventions in 1945 after reading André Breton's Le Surréalisme et la Peinture, he began experimenting with non-objective (or non-representational) painting. He was one of the signers of the Refus global manifesto. In 1947 Riopelle moved to Paris and continued his career as an artist, where, after a brief association with the surrealists (he was the only Canadian to exhibit with them) he capitalized on his image as a "wild Canadian". His first solo exhibition took place in 1949 at the Surrealist meeting place, Galerie La Dragonne in Paris. Riopelle married Françoise Lespérance in 1946; the couple had two daughters but separated in 1953. In 1959 he began a relationship with the American painter Joan Mitchell, Living together throughout the 1960s, they kept separate homes and studios near Giverny, where Monet had lived. They influenced one another greatly, as much intellectually as artistically, but their relationship was a stormy one, fueled by alcohol. The relationship ended in 1979. His 1992 painting Hommage à Rosa Luxemburg is Riopelle's tribute to Mitchell, who died that year, and is regarded as a high point of his later work. Riopelle's style in the 1940s changed quickly from Surrealism to Lyrical Abstraction (related to abstract expressionism), in which he used myriad tumultuous cubes and triangles of multicolored elements, facetted with a palette knife, spatula, or trowel, on often large canvases to create powerful atmospheres. The presence of long filaments of paint in his painting from 1948 through the early 1950s[8] has often been seen as resulting from a dripping technique like that of Jackson Pollock. Rather, the creation of such effects came from the act of throwing, with a palette knife or brush, large quantities of paint onto the stretched canvas. Riopelle's voluminous impasto became just as important as color. His oil painting technique allowed him to paint thick layers, producing peaks and troughs as copious amounts of paint were applied to the surface of the canvas. Riopelle, though, claimed that the heavy impasto was unintentional: "When I begin a painting," he said, "I always hope to complete it in a few strokes, starting with the first colours I daub down anywhere and anyhow. But it never works, so I add more, without realizing it. I have never wanted to paint thickly, paint tubes are much too expensive. But one way or another, the painting has to be done. When I learn how to paint better, I will paint less thickly." When Riopelle started painting, he would attempt to finish the work in one session, preparing all the color he needed before hand: "I would even go as far to say—obviously I don't use a palette, but the idea of a palette or a selection of colors that is not mine makes me uncomfortable, because when I work, I can't waste my time searching for them. It has to work right away." A third element, range of gloss, in addition to color and volume, plays a crucial role in Riopelle's oil paintings. Paints are juxtaposed so that light is reflected off the surface not just in different directions but with varying intensity, depending on the naturally occurring gloss finish (he did not varnish his paintings). These three elements; color, volume, and range of gloss, would form the basis of his oil painting technique throughout his long and prolific career. Riopelle received an Honorable Mention at the 1952 São Paulo Art Biennial. In 1953 he showed at the Younger European Painters exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The following year Riopelle began exhibiting at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York. In 1954, works by Riopelle, along with those of B. C. Binning and Paul-Émile Borduas represented Canada at the Venice Biennale. He was the sole artist representing Canada at the 1962 Venice Biennale in an exhibit curated by Charles Comfort...
Category

1970s Pop Art Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Robert Rauschenberg, rare 1970s Signed/N Earth Day William Burroughs lithograph
By Robert Rauschenberg
Located in New York, NY
ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG Dream of William Burroughs, 1972 Offset lithograph 34 1/2 × 24 inches Edition 103/150 Signed, dated and numbered in black marker on the front Unframed Wonderful e...
Category

1970s Pop Art Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

"Nature Morte a la Mandole" Lithograph, Pencil-signed by the artist Marcel Mouly
By Marcel Mouly
Located in Chesterfield, MI
"Nature Morte a la Mandole" is a Lithograph from the artist Marcel Mouly. The piece is pencil-signed by the artist. It measures approximately 21.25 x 29 inches. The date of creation ...
Category

Late 20th Century Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Marching On A Butterbur Leaf Print 2019 Exclusive Limited Sticker Set Pop Art
By Yoshitomo Nara
Located in Draper, UT
DETAILS: 27 x 17 inches 2020 Offset lithograph 80# Classic Linen Solar White Cover
Category

2010s Pop Art Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Dob Flower
By Takashi Murakami
Located in London, GB
Offset Lithograph 50 × 50 cm - paper size 66 x 66 cm - framed size Frame included Edition of 300 Hand-signed and numbered
Category

Early 2000s Pop Art Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Dob Flower
Dob Flower
$4,039
H 25.99 in W 25.99 in
Study for Sculpture in the Form of an Inverted Q Above and Below Ground
By Claes Oldenburg
Located in New York, NY
This work is a study for Inverted Q, a large sculpture that Oldenburg created after producing many sketches and small models. At the time he was experimenting with concepts of monume...
Category

1970s Pop Art Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

Materials

Etching, Aquatint, Lithograph

Untitled by Bruce Nauman abstract black and white drypoint etching 70s
By Bruce Nauman
Located in New York, NY
A moody, evocative black and white abstract etching by pioneer Bruce Nauman. Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941) is an American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media inc...
Category

1970s Abstract Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

Materials

Drypoint, Aquatint

Previously Available Items
City Edge
By Wayne Thiebaud
Located in New York, NY
Aquatint Edition: 43/60 Signed and dated bottom right
Category

1980s Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

Materials

Aquatint

City Edge
By Wayne Thiebaud
Located in New York, NY
Aquatint Edition: 43/60 Signed and dated bottom right
Category

1980s Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints

Materials

Aquatint

Wayne Thiebaud abstract prints for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Wayne Thiebaud abstract prints available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Wayne Thiebaud in aquatint, drypoint, engraving and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the Pop Art style. Not every interior allows for large Wayne Thiebaud abstract prints, so small editions measuring 16 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Robin Morris, Ronnie Cutrone, and Bob Pardo. Wayne Thiebaud abstract prints prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $8,500 and tops out at $9,500, while the average work can sell for $9,000.
Questions About Wayne Thiebaud Abstract Prints
  • 1stDibs ExpertAugust 8, 2024
    Wayne Thiebaud is best known for his work as an artist. His pastel-hued still-life paintings and prints of baked goods, gumball machines, hot dogs and paint cans are often associated with Pop art for the way they respond to popular culture. 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. 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. On 1stDibs, shop a selection of Wayne Thiebaud art.
  • 1stDibs ExpertMarch 15, 2024
    Wayne Thiebaud used a variety of mediums to produce his paintings, drawings and prints. The brilliant late artist worked in charcoal, graphite, ballpoint, oil paint, ink, colored pencil, watercolor, pastel and gouache. He is best known for his works depicting everyday objects, such as cosmetics, desserts and paint cans. On 1stDibs, find a selection of Wayne Thiebaud art.
  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
    Wayne Thiebaud is often associated with the pop art movement because he focused on common objects. His particular style predates the pop art movement, which accounts for the sometimes classification and the influences of modern art in his work as well. On 1stDibs, find a variety of original artwork from top artists.
  • 1stDibs ExpertMarch 22, 2022
    Wayne Thiebaud used oil paints, pastels and charcoal to produce his paintings. In addition to painting, the artist produced etches, lithographs, linocuts and silkscreens. His paintings of pastries and landscapes are especially well known. Shop a range of Wayne Thiebaud art on 1stDibs.
  • 1stDibs ExpertSeptember 9, 2024
    How much Wayne Thiebaud's paintings are worth varies based on their size, history, condition and other factors. In 2020, his Four Pinball Machines sold for over $19 million at a New York auction. 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. If you own a Thiebaud painting, a certified appraiser or experienced art dealer can help you determine how much it may be worth. On 1stDibs, explore an assortment of Wayne Thiebaud art.
  • 1stDibs ExpertMarch 22, 2022
    Wayne Thiebaud became interested in art he saw in the world around him as a child. When he was a teenager, he made money designing posters for a cinema in his town. He received his formal education from Long Beach Polytechnic High School and the Frank Wiggins Trade School in Los Angeles. On 1stDibs, shop a range of Wayne Thiebaud art.

Recently Viewed

View All