Wayne Thiebaud
American
1920, Mesa, Arizona
2021, Sacramento, California
Bay Area artist Wayne Thiebaud worked first as a graphic designer and cartoonist before beginning his painting career in the mid-1950s. He combined a number of interests then current in American art: thick, gestural brushwork, everyday subject matter, and commercial imagery.
Thiebaud is best known for his paintings of cakes, pies, and candies arranged in classic diner or cafeteria style. Thiebaud depicts these objects as commodities, their emphasis on appearance as much as taste. He achieved this effect through serial repetition, synthetic colors, and, famously, by painting with a knife, as if he were spreading the "frosting" onto his cakes. By focusing on sugary foodstuffs, Thiebaud updated the traditional still-life genre for the age of mass production and consumption.
Audio Stories
Are Thiebaud’s paintings about nostalgia?
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Works in the Collection
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Wayne ThiebaudClown and Beast
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Wayne ThiebaudBuffet
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Wayne ThiebaudConfections
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Wayne ThiebaudCanyon Mountains study
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Wayne ThiebaudCanyon Mountains
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Wayne ThiebaudTen sketches for Girl with Pink Hat
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Wayne ThiebaudSketch for Girl with Pink Hat
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Wayne ThiebaudNancy Jennings posing for possible portrait
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Wayne ThiebaudNancy Jennings posing for possible portrait
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Wayne ThiebaudNancy Jennings posing for her possible portrait
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Wayne ThiebaudGirl with Pink Hat Sketch
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Wayne ThiebaudGirl with Pink Hat
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Wayne ThiebaudStudent
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Wayne ThiebaudValley Streets
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Wayne ThiebaudPineapple Tray
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Wayne ThiebaudThree Wind Toys
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Wayne ThiebaudDessert Tray
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Wayne ThiebaudUntitled
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Wayne ThiebaudUntitled (Mountainside and Clouds)
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Wayne ThiebaudUntitled (Tabletop Food Display)
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