Wayne Thiebaud: A Paintings Retrospective

by Steven A. Nash, Adam Gopnik (Contributor)

Wayne Thiebaud, the California-based painter, has produced works of complexity and distinction that appear deceptively simple in terms of subject matter and in their presentation yet draw on many historical sources. In fact, Thiebaud is part of the grand tradition of representational art from Chardin and Manet to the American Realist masters such as Eakins and Hopper. Best-known for his deadpan still-life paintings of cakes, pies, delicatessen counters, and other consumer goods, Thiebaud has also explored such themes as figure studies, the topography of Northern California, and cityscapes exaggerating the vertiginous roadways and geometric high-rises of San Francisco. Continuous throughout his career is his combination of the perceptual and the conceptual, of sensuous color, light, and painterly texture with rigorously formal composition, resulting in a highly personalized Americana. Wayne A Paintings Retrospective is published on the occasion of an exhibition of the same title, the first major survey in fifteen years of work by this famous American figurative artist. Steven A. Nash, Associate Director and Chief Curator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, has organized the exhibition and provides a biographical essay on Thiebaud. An extended essay by Adam Gopnik, the Paris Journal writer for The New Yorker , links Thiebaud to American writing as a painter in the tradition of Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, and John Updike.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Biography, Art Design

192 pages, Hardcover

Published June 1, 2000

Reviews

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wayne Thiebaud's paintings are the stuff of dreams(well, my dreams anyway). I find looking at Thiebaud's cake paintings, in some ways, better than actually eating cake, and coming from me that means a lot.

[Lisa Anita · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing by Nash and Gopnik is much better than the usual dry writing in books about art/artists. The time-line on the first 80 years of Thiebaud's life (through the year 2000) is well done, but the 120 Thiebaud paintings featured are the best part.

[Cameron Toney · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful overview of some of the works of Wayne Thiebaud. I love this work, and the essays are interesting and the pictures wonderful.

[Dyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't read/look at this book if you're hungry. This artist's work is representational, rather old fashioned if you're an art snob. He's a west coast artist. That's not trying to pigeon hole him it's just that many artistic works from our west coast are Disneyfied or Hollywoodized. His work is a little of both. Cakes, ice cream, deli-counters, gum balls, candy etc abound in his work. He even did a picture of a hotdog that was exquisite. Then he did portraits of people unlike any I've ever seen (I've seen thousands). Then on to vertiginous landscapes, followed by a type of landscape that has become something that looks delicious. His way of handling paint is sensuous and like van Gogh's paint stroke, textual. His portrait of a white rabbit in pastel is so vivid you'd like to reach into the picture and pet it's fur. This artist makes the most mundane look sublime.

[nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Made me think of portraiture in a new way. I need not mention Thiebaud's cakes or hot dogs or grinning ice cream cones. You already know and love them, and so do I. But the portraits! Do you know about the portraits? Aside from just being things you want to look at (the palette! the shadows! the texture!) for their beauty and mastery of the medium, they are as telling of a time and a people as the works of John Singer Sargent, Renoir, or Gaugin. They are America, they are the 1960s.

And the landscapes. HE KILLS ME. Still life, landscape, and portraiture. Nailed 'em all, that Thiebaud. This collection will bring you to the light if you are not already there, though there is a new monograph published in late 2013 that I'll have to check out next.

[Deborah Pickstone · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting introduction for me to the work of a painter who is new to me. I particularly like retrospectives as they enable a clear view of a painter's development. I particularly like his pastel work and elevated landscapes and, though I found nothing in the narrative to suggest it, I do wonder if Hundertwasser was an influence, though Thiebald is not a colourist of that standard. I found his 'Betty Crocker' work well executed but mundane. That aside, I think him an impressive painter.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my most used quotes was captured from Wayne in an interview I once caught on PBS. When asked about his work and inspiration he remarked, "I'm a visual bandit." I just love that. Of course I don't know many fellow Art Historians who dislike Wayne Thiebaud yet I still pitch his genius to the masses. A great collection, well selected, always a conversation piece.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oooooo... Pretty and delicious.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's art you like to study and art you want hanging in your home. I want Wayne Thiebaud hanging in my home.

[Roger Parent]

I enjoyed his writing style.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of favorites!