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Exhibition

Wayne Thiebaud

Artist's Choice: September 29, 2018—March 17, 2019
Paintings and Drawings: September 29, 2018—April 28, 2019
Floor 2

In two side-by-side exhibitions, Northern California–based artist Wayne Thiebaud’s own work is featured alongside paintings by others that he personally selected from SFMOMA’s collection.

Thiebaud (b. 1920) first visited SFMOMA in 1942, when he was just 22 years old, and has had a close relationship with the museum ever since. For Wayne Thiebaud: Artist’s Choice, he delved deep into the museum’s storage vault. His choices include both old friends and new discoveries by European Modernists Henri Matisse and Joan Miró, American painters George Ault and Georgia O’Keeffe, California peers Richard Diebenkorn and John McLaughlin, and more recent canvases by Katherine Porter and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

Drawn from SFMOMA’s collection, the selection of works in Wayne Thiebaud: Paintings and Drawings spans 50 years of the artist’s career, from his classic still life Confections (1962) to his grand landscape Canyon Mountains (2011–12). Get a firsthand look at the creative process behind Thiebaud’s lushly painted, richly hued works, from beginning sketch to finished painting.


Artist’s Choice Preview

04 Thiebaud AC
02 Theibaud
05 Joan Miro AC
Wayne Thiebaud looking at a Katherine Porter painting
A painting in gray with abstract lines in black and white
06 James Weeks AC

Artist Wayne Thiebaud at SFMOMA’s Collections Center, 2018; photo: Katherine Du Tiel

Artist Wayne Thiebaud at SFMOMA’s Collections Center, 2018; photo: Katherine Du Tiel

Joan Miró, Femme et oiseau (Woman and Bird), 1944; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, fractional gift from Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem; © Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris; photo: Ben Blackwell

Artist Wayne Thiebaud at SFMOMA’s Collections Center, 2018; photo: Katherine Du Tiel

Katherine Porter, Untitled, 1979; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, gift of Phyllis A. Kempner, PhD, and David D. Stein, PhD; © Katherine Porter; photo: Katherine Du Tiel

James Weeks, Jockey, 1962; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, gift of Laura-Lee W. and Robert J. Woods, Jr.; © Estate of James Weeks


Paintings and Drawings Preview

01 Thiebaud PD
03_Thiebaud PD
02 Thiebaud PD
05_Thiebaud PD
04_Thiebaud PD

Wayne Thiebaud, Pineapple Tray, 1972/1990/1992; the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Wayne Thiebaud / Licensed by VAGA, New York

Wayne Thiebaud, Sketch for “Girl with a Pink Hat,” 1973; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, gift of Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud; © Wayne Thiebaud / Licensed by VAGA, New York; photo: Don Ross

Wayne Thiebaud, Girl with a Pink Hat, 1973; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, gift of Jeannette Powell; © Wayne Thiebaud / Licensed by VAGA, New York; photo: Don Ross

Wayne Thiebaud, Canyon Mountains study, ca. 2011; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, gift of the Thiebaud family; © Wayne Thiebaud / Licensed by VAGA, New York

Wayne Thiebaud, Canyon Mountains, 2011–12; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, purchase, by exchange, through fractional gifts of Gretchen and John Berggruen and Madeleine Haas Russell, and gift of the Thiebaud family; photo: Katherine Du Tiel



Lead support for Wayne Thiebaud: Artist’s Choice and Wayne Thiebaud: Paintings and Drawings is provided by an anonymous donor. Major support is provided by Jean and James E. Douglas, Jr., Burt and Deedee McMurtry, Eileen and Peter Michael, Susan and Bill Oberndorf, the Thomas Weisel Family, and an anonymous donor.

Header image: Wayne Thiebaud, 1985 (installation view, SFMOMA); photo: Ben Blackwell