If Edward Hopper ever painted cakes and ice cream, his artworks would probably look like this. Wayne Thiebaud’s work is intrinsically American; the subject matter, the style, the colour…
If you really look at a lemon meringue pie or a beautiful cake, it’s kind of a work of art
Born in Mesa, Arizona, artist Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021) grew up mainly in Long Beach, California where he remembers that he:
…sold papers on the beach, was a lifeguard in high school. So the beach was, and is, very much a part of my memory and my actual experience.
Another one of his jobs was at Mile High and Red Hot, a café famed for its stacked ice-cream cones and hot dogs. There were also, Thiebaud remembers, “rows of pies”.
After he graduated from high school in 1938, Thiebaud took on a variety of jobs, including one as a cinema usher. He worked at the Rivoli in Long Beach, where he illustrated the occasional promotional poster. The many hours that he spent milling around the snack counter and the reception area – which was furnished with promotional stills and lobby cards, had a great effect on him. Cinema snacks such as candy, soda, ice cream and popcorn have all featured prominently in his work since then, as have masks, show girls, ticket-sellers and other theater-related subjects.
As a boy, Thiebaud dreamed of becoming a cartoonist, like his uncle, and did a brief stint at Disney as an “in-betweener”, drawing the interstitial actions of animated characters between their headline motions. Apparently, he’d trained himself to draw Popeye with both hands simultaneously, which helped him get the gig. Unfortunately, this job lasted a mere three months, he was fired for participating in union activities.
He spent the early stages of his career in commercial art and advertising, honing his drawing and learning about shadow, light and line. He served an apprenticeship as a sign painter/showcard illustrator at Sears, Roebuck and Company.
During World War II, Thiebaud served in the U.S. Army Air Force; he didn’t become a pilot, instead, he was part of the Special Services Division where his tasks included drawing comic strips for the newspaper at a military base.
After the war, he earned his bachelors and masters degrees from Sacramento State College (now California State University, Sacramento) and commenced being an art teacher. He enjoyed teaching and encouraged his students to learn from the great painters but to plow their own furrow creatively. In 1960, he was appointed to the faculty of the University of California Davis, where he taught for over 30 years.
Thiebaud experimented using different media, such as pen and ink, oils, watercolours, charcoal and pencils. Around 1964, he branched out into printmaking, collaborating on etchings and other projects with Crown Point Press in California.
Thiebaud’s career as a fine artist didn’t really take off until a watershed 1962 exhibition at the Allan Stone Gallery in Manhattan. He’d travelled to New York City from California with a bundle of his food paintings – which had received a less than enthusiastic reception from most dealers. However, Stone was intrigued and offered him a solo show.
It has never ceased to thrill and amaze me the magic of what happens when you put one bit of paint next to another.
Thiebaud’s work has been exhibited in major museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim and the Smithsonian.
As you’d expect, a number of books and catalogues have been published about him and his work – many are available from Abe Books and Amazon.
I wake up every morning and paint,” he added. “I’ll be damned but I just can’t stop.
Additional image credits:
The National Gallery of Art
