Delicious Metropolis: The Desserts and Urban Scenes of Wayne Thiebaud

by Wayne Thiebaud

Delicious Metropolis brings together two of Wayne Thiebaud's most celebrated bodies of work: desserts and cityscapes. Between the two, fascinating juxtapositions develop. The layers of a Neapolitan cake echo the shadows cast across a street in the late afternoon. The pastel hues of iced sponge cakes match California's candy-colored houses. Curators, critics, and artists guide the reader through the book via insightful bite-size essays. This gorgeous hardcover offers fans and newcomers a refreshing and accessible way to enjoy the oeuvre of this iconic American painter.

• Photos of art along with short essays by curators, critics, and artists
• Cross multicolored page edges evoke the layers of Thiebaud's mouthwatering cakes

Fans of Wayne Thiebaud Draftsman , Counting with Wayne Thiebaud , and Richard Diebenkorn: A Retrospective will love this book.

This book is perfect for:
• Fine art buffs
• Fans of Wayne Thiebaud
• Foodies and bakers
• Fans of California and city life

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Food

144 pages, Hardcover

Published April 30, 2019

Reviews

[Mir]

A clever title, but as the subtitle admits, those are merely two subjects that Thiebaud painted frequently; they are not intimately connected to one another except in the sense that he was interested in things that represented the modern urban experience and its objects.

I'm not sure why this book exists or why you would want to purchase it when there are already several more extensive books of Thiebaud's work, with large, better quality reproductions and more interesting texts. This has some marginal local interest in that the (brief and often inexpert) commentary is by people from the area.

Only a couple of the texts are interesting, and Thiebaud's philosophy of art is reproduced in a number of other places. Which is a relief, because the text is all printed white on pale pink, as on the cover, and is very difficult to make out. No clue why someone thought that was a smart design decision.


Short version: not awful, but inferior. Get Wayne Thiebaud: A Retrospective or Wayne Thiebaud: 1958-1968 instead.

[🌈⭐️RoseOfRainbows⭐️🌈💕]

Beautiful and tasty delights featured in this top of the line art book. My artist mother recommended it to me and I love it. Easily one of my favorite art books I’ve seen in awhile. Easy on the eyes and colorful in pretty pastels. It’s a masterpiece for sure.

[Sarah]

Pure bliss. (I’d dock it half a star for very-hard-to-read white text on a pink background if I could. The aesthetics work for Thiebaud. But the artists’ statement is almost unreadable.)

[A]

Sometimes it feels like writing can be too didactic and not poetic enough. The best thing about this little book is Wayne Thiebaud's 1962 artist statement. Sometimes the juxtapositions of paintings, food vs. landscapes seem over-wrought. The one which felt perfect for me was the frontispiece.

The annoying part was that there were pink and pink-edged pages with brown text. It was too distracting. You wonder what Wayne Thiebaud would have thought.

[Lighthouse]

Art focus: desserts and city buildings
what it reminds me of: Degas & Monet
my favorite: Cake Canopy (2008)
Wayne Thiebaud: solid 8/10, good art
thoughts: he took "the art is delicious" literally

[BluMoon Reads]

Thiebaud is a unique painter like none other. I have studied many artists and never seen anyone quite like him. He created modern art in a bygone era. I loved reading about other artist's perspectives on his work.