My Virtual Garden 2: Wayne Thiebaud

Wayne Thiebaud, one of the greatest living American artists, has died at the age of 101 in Sacramento, California. He was one of the most important California artists, who purposely remained in California and did not move to New York, which was generally considered necessary for success and true "greatness."

Wayne Thiebaud (November 15, 1920 – December 25, 2021) was an American painter known for his colorful works depicting commonplace objects—pies, lipsticks, paint cans, ice cream cones, pastries, and hot dogs—as well as for his landscapes and figure paintings.

"Sacramento Valley"

"Two Cakes"

"Cake Case" 1962

Thiebaud is associated with the pop art movement because of his interest in objects of mass culture, although his early works, executed during the fifties and sixties, slightly predate the works of the classic pop artists. Thiebaud used heavy pigment and exaggerated colors to depict his subjects, and the well-defined shadows characteristic of advertisements are almost always included in his work.

"Boston Cremes"

Thiebaud is also associated with the Bay Area Figurative Movement. We worked in the San Francisco Bay area his whole life, and he preferred recognizable subject matter to abstraction. These California artists consciously rejected the Abstract Expressionism of New York artists, which was generally held to be the outstanding achievement of American artists.