Wayne Thiebaud

Wayne Thiebaud, born in 1920, American painter, who introduced aspects of New York City pop art to the West Coast in the 1960s. Thiebaud is best known for his brightly lit still lifes of cakes and pies, painted in the realistic style common in advertising and set against empty backgrounds. Although mundane consumer products constitute his subject matter, Thiebaud's work celebrates the tactility and texture of paint and uses bright colors inspired by the crisp light of California.

Thiebaud was born in Mesa, Arizona, and grew up in Long Beach, California. After serving in the United States Army Air Force from 1942 to 1946, he returned to California to enter San Jose State College, later transferring to Sacramento State College to earn both B.A. and M.A. degrees in art by 1952. In 1960 he began teaching art at the University of California at Davis. That year his characteristic style emerged: He began to use thickly applied paint, bright colors, strong outlines, and well-defined shadows to depict everyday motifs such as pies, cosmetics, and children's toys.

In 1962 Thiebaud was included in a show with several New York City pop artists, including Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Like these artists, Thiebaud painted images drawn from American consumer culture. However, whereas the New York City artists emulated the techniques of mechanical mass production in their work, Thiebaud employed a richly sensual handling of paint to depict his subject matter. Typical of Thiebaud's work of this time is Yo-Yos (1962-1963, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York), in which the frankly realistic depiction of a neat row of toys is in marked contrast to Thiebaud's lushly applied brushstrokes of intense color.

In the mid-1960s Thiebaud began to paint human figures using a similar technique. For instance, in Booth Girl (1964, private collection), the girl pictured appears to have little more life than one of Thiebaud's paintings of pies, but the richness of the paint surface brings the painting back to life. In the 1970s and 1980s, Thiebaud turned to landscape, concentrating primarily on the steep cityscapes of San Francisco, California, and on soaring views of overly complicated freeway exchanges. In Mission Ridge (1977-1978, collection of John Berggruen, San Francisco), streets are painted at an exaggerated and vertiginous tilt, their outlines and shadows further enlivened by Thiebaud's characteristic use of electric colors.