Cakes, they are glorious
January 10, 2022 11:16 AM Subscribe
Artist Wayne Thiebaud has died at 101. The art world lost painter Wayne Thiebaud on Christmas day. Known for his glorious portraits of food, especially desserts, the artist also painted landscapes and figures, chasing light and texture and shape obsessively. He painted daily up to his death.
Guardian obituary
Smithsonian magazine article from 2011
Thiebaud responding to Rosa Bonheur's The Horse Fair
Interview with Thiebaud by the founding director of the Manetti-Shrem Museum, at UC Davis where he was a professor emeritus
An Eye for Art: learning guide to Thiebaud's work
Maybe just scroll through some images and soak it in
Guardian obituary
Smithsonian magazine article from 2011
Thiebaud responding to Rosa Bonheur's The Horse Fair
Interview with Thiebaud by the founding director of the Manetti-Shrem Museum, at UC Davis where he was a professor emeritus
An Eye for Art: learning guide to Thiebaud's work
Maybe just scroll through some images and soak it in
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I was first drawn to him for his vertigo-inducing landscapes. Only after attending an exhibition did I realize he also painted cakes. It's fascinating how much the two themes have in common in terms of color, shape, etc.
posted by treepour at 11:29 AM on January 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
I was first drawn to him for his vertigo-inducing landscapes. Only after attending an exhibition did I realize he also painted cakes. It's fascinating how much the two themes have in common in terms of color, shape, etc.
posted by treepour at 11:29 AM on January 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
I love Wayne Thiebaud so much. The tea mug I use every day is a Wayne Thiebaud mug (it has the three gumball machines).
I was lucky enough to see the great Thiebaud retrospective in San Francisco, and to ask him a question at a City Arts and Lectures event.
He was possibly my favorite living painter. I am so glad to have been alive while he was working. And he taught at UC Davis for so many years! How amazing it would have been to get to learn from him.
I will always love his work - I am especially partial to his food paintings, the desserts, yes, but also the sandwiches.
Thank you so much for posting this, PussKillian. I will have to get out that exhibit catalog and spend a long quiet hour paging through it.
posted by kristi at 12:08 PM on January 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
I was lucky enough to see the great Thiebaud retrospective in San Francisco, and to ask him a question at a City Arts and Lectures event.
He was possibly my favorite living painter. I am so glad to have been alive while he was working. And he taught at UC Davis for so many years! How amazing it would have been to get to learn from him.
I will always love his work - I am especially partial to his food paintings, the desserts, yes, but also the sandwiches.
Thank you so much for posting this, PussKillian. I will have to get out that exhibit catalog and spend a long quiet hour paging through it.
posted by kristi at 12:08 PM on January 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
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Thank you for posting this. I had seen his San Francisco paintings before, but never followed up. What a painter.
Just invested in a book from a retrospectives exhibition and look forward to absorbing his work in more detail.
posted by doornoise at 12:22 PM on January 10, 2022
Thank you for posting this. I had seen his San Francisco paintings before, but never followed up. What a painter.
Just invested in a book from a retrospectives exhibition and look forward to absorbing his work in more detail.
posted by doornoise at 12:22 PM on January 10, 2022
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posted by wicked_sassy at 12:24 PM on January 10, 2022
posted by wicked_sassy at 12:24 PM on January 10, 2022
Definitely recommend looking for his landscapes. They give me vertigo and I love them.
posted by panhopticon at 12:35 PM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by panhopticon at 12:35 PM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
He could make painted frosting seem so very real, and his compositions & colors were fantastic, from the cityscapes to the food. Plus he seemed like a smart, kind guy. As with most painters his work is best seen in person, but I'll still probably get this upcoming book.
posted by lisa g at 12:57 PM on January 10, 2022
posted by lisa g at 12:57 PM on January 10, 2022
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A generous teacher and colleague, a thoughtful painter, a model of sustained creative work. I have mentioned before running into him at the door to the Crown Point Press building when he was coming in for his yearly print project, professorial in a jacket and tie. He was in his mid-90s then.
SFMOMA did an exhibition, Wayne Thiebaud: Artist's Choice, in which he went to their storage and put together a show. My colleagues and I got a walk-though (sadly not led by Wayne, but by curator Janet Bishop) which was a privilege and a delight.
I love the cityscapes, I love the desserts, but mostly I love the edges of the things he painted - there is usually a great color moment at the edge where a street becomes a sidewalk, or where the air around a cake presses inward on it (or the cake presses out against the air - it's a mysterious thing.)
posted by Lawn Beaver at 1:11 PM on January 10, 2022 [7 favorites]
A generous teacher and colleague, a thoughtful painter, a model of sustained creative work. I have mentioned before running into him at the door to the Crown Point Press building when he was coming in for his yearly print project, professorial in a jacket and tie. He was in his mid-90s then.
SFMOMA did an exhibition, Wayne Thiebaud: Artist's Choice, in which he went to their storage and put together a show. My colleagues and I got a walk-though (sadly not led by Wayne, but by curator Janet Bishop) which was a privilege and a delight.
I love the cityscapes, I love the desserts, but mostly I love the edges of the things he painted - there is usually a great color moment at the edge where a street becomes a sidewalk, or where the air around a cake presses inward on it (or the cake presses out against the air - it's a mysterious thing.)
posted by Lawn Beaver at 1:11 PM on January 10, 2022 [7 favorites]
Love love love him. Even though his cake paintings are surface level joyful and happy, there's always a Hopper-like loneliness to them. It's a potent pairing.
posted by Capt. Renault at 1:31 PM on January 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Capt. Renault at 1:31 PM on January 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
That City Arts and Lectures event I was at has been posted to their website. It's a great listen - he has wonderful things to say about art, and teaching art students, and working at beachside food stands as a young man.
There are also some Crown Point Press videos of Wayne Thiebaud working available for viewing.
Thank you for your comment, Lawn Beaver - I'm going to pay extra attention to his edges.
posted by kristi at 2:40 PM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
There are also some Crown Point Press videos of Wayne Thiebaud working available for viewing.
Thank you for your comment, Lawn Beaver - I'm going to pay extra attention to his edges.
posted by kristi at 2:40 PM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
There’s a nice piece of public art in Sacramento — his mosaic mural that wraps around the electric utility headquarters, easy to get to from US 50.
posted by sageleaf at 3:48 PM on January 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by sageleaf at 3:48 PM on January 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
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I think many people don’t realise just how amazing his paintings are. The colors and textures he created were incredible. Delicious, but not in an edible way. More like joyfully lush?
posted by iamkimiam at 3:49 PM on January 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
I think many people don’t realise just how amazing his paintings are. The colors and textures he created were incredible. Delicious, but not in an edible way. More like joyfully lush?
posted by iamkimiam at 3:49 PM on January 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
I had no idea Thiebaud was that old. Such a sad loss. But he leaves us with a wealth of amazing art.
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posted by Thorzdad at 4:07 PM on January 10, 2022
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posted by Thorzdad at 4:07 PM on January 10, 2022
Yes, delicious was exactly the word my teachers used to describe his work!!! And it IS, it's scrumptious. Gosh.
posted by The Adventure Begins at 5:07 PM on January 10, 2022
posted by The Adventure Begins at 5:07 PM on January 10, 2022
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I first learned of Thiebaud when he was featured in an episode of Behind the Scenes with Penn and Teller, an extremely 90s-tactic PBS mini-series designed to introduce art concepts to school-age kids. Come for Thiebaud drawing an ice cream cone, stay for this sheltered 90s kid’s first introduction to Matt Groening.
posted by ActionPopulated at 6:49 PM on January 10, 2022
I first learned of Thiebaud when he was featured in an episode of Behind the Scenes with Penn and Teller, an extremely 90s-tactic PBS mini-series designed to introduce art concepts to school-age kids. Come for Thiebaud drawing an ice cream cone, stay for this sheltered 90s kid’s first introduction to Matt Groening.
posted by ActionPopulated at 6:49 PM on January 10, 2022
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posted by cpatterson at 11:11 PM on January 10, 2022
posted by cpatterson at 11:11 PM on January 10, 2022
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posted by feistycakes at 8:40 AM on January 11, 2022
posted by feistycakes at 8:40 AM on January 11, 2022
Tyler Green's Modern Art Notes podcast reshared a conversation with Thiebaud from late 2017 in a recent episode. A really interesting look into pretty much his entire career. I recommend it.
posted by HiddenInput at 9:27 AM on January 11, 2022
posted by HiddenInput at 9:27 AM on January 11, 2022
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posted by tychotesla at 12:53 PM on January 11, 2022
posted by tychotesla at 12:53 PM on January 11, 2022
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posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 1:16 PM on January 11, 2022
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 1:16 PM on January 11, 2022
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posted by queensissy at 2:50 PM on January 11, 2022
posted by queensissy at 2:50 PM on January 11, 2022
If anyone's interested, I threw some details of a painting into this Flickr folder that might show some of the edges and color work that people like.
posted by PussKillian at 11:30 AM on January 12, 2022
posted by PussKillian at 11:30 AM on January 12, 2022
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He was just so fucking good. My younger kiddo is both getting into painting and is extremely dessert oriented, and I love Thiebaud as a model for him -- "yes, you can just paint the heck out of a donut. go for it."
My personal love, as a San Franciscan, is for the completely bonkers SF landscapes that don't (and can't) technically exist but are somehow perfectly accurate.
posted by feckless at 11:23 AM on January 10, 2022 [17 favorites]