Most individuals know of the late Wayne Thiebaud as an Americana painter with a marked affection for confection, however a brand new exhibition opening subsequent month on the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco goals to seize the whole lot of Thiebaud’s profession as an artist, trainer, and, in his personal phrases, an “obsessive thief.” From March 22 via August 17, Wayne Thiebaud: Artwork Comes from Artwork will unite the artist’s in style work of luxurious candies, desserts, and extra with influential artworks immediately from his private assortment. It’s additionally billed as the primary present to discover in-depth the artist’s “reinterpretations” of masterpieces by his creative influences.
Wayne Thiebaud, “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” (2000)
The exhibition highlights the intersection of the artist’s roles as an avid collector, lifelong learner, and educator on the Sacramento Junior School and the College of California, Davis. Roughly 60 of Thiebaud’s works throughout his six-decade profession are included within the present, which is able to function 132 items in complete.
By means of a number of loans from institutional and personal collections in addition to the Wayne Thiebaud Basis (the exhibition’s largest lender), the present started coming collectively in 2022 and the catalog was accomplished and printed in 2024.
Left: Follower of Thomas Hill, “Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite” (c. 1900), Assortment of the Wayne Thiebaud Basis (picture by Michael Trask, courtesy Wayne Thiebaud Basis)Proper: Wayne Thiebaud, “Blue Ridge Mountain” (2010) (© Wayne Thiebaud Basis / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY)
“Many of these works implicitly provided a counterpoint to modernism’s marginalization or rejection of artists deemed to be outdated, and explicitly served as sources of inspiration and challenge,” Burgard continued.
“Thiebaud’s art collection also enabled him to join an extended community of artists, both living and deceased, and to engage in a dialogue with their artworks,” Burgard mentioned, including that the artist’s copies allowed him to channel the strategies and motivations of these earlier than him.
Thiebaud’s 2000 copy of Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884” (1884–86) and different work lifting or conglomerating from the likes of Jacob van Hulsdonck, Henri Fantin-Latour, Edgar Degas, Edward Hopper, and painters of the Hudson River College will probably be displayed alongside printed renditions of the originals he explicitly references, outlining how the artist “steals” immediately from European and American artwork historical past.
Wayne Thiebaud “Supine Woman” (1963) (picture by Robert LaPrelle)
Emphasizing Thiebaud’s fervor for not simply emulating Previous Masters by embodying their processes but in addition passing alongside his and his predecessors’ information to generations of artists to return, Burgard shared a quote attributed to the artist:
“I think we have a misconception about where painting comes from. It’s not a hermetic activity. It doesn’t come from an individual. It’s a communal, commemorative, very layered activity that comes from groups of people. If you think of painting’s history, you find these enclaves of people who worked together, who helped each other, who depended on each other. You need confrontation, you need critical interrogation.”
Thiebaud maintained his studio observe up till his loss of life in 2021 on the age of 101.
Wayne Thiebaud, “Cakes & Pies” (1994–95), Assortment of the Kemper Museum of Modern Artwork, Kansas Metropolis, Missouri (picture by E. G. Schempf)
Wayne Thiebaud, “Betty Jean Thiebaud and Book” (1965–69), Crocker Artwork Museum
Wayne Thiebaud, “Five Seated Figures” (1965)
