Wayne Thiebaud was born on November 15th, 1920 in Mesa, Arizona. Thiebaud grew up in Long Beach, California where, as a youth, worked in a restaurant. There he was inspired by the rows of pies and cakes, sandwiches and meats displayed in their countertops. Later in his career he would paint those same foods. Thiebaud graduated from Sacramento State College in 1941. He then worked as a cartoonist and designer in both California and New York. As his talents developed, he became more and more interested in the uniformity of American food. The hamburger, the hot dog, the club sandwich - all spoke of America. He was interested in the way they looked. The foods Thiebaud painted have a solidity and nobility. They are full of basic geometric forms- squares, wedges, disks, cylinders. Thiebaud is normally associated with the Pop movement, but he is actually a realist painter, like Hopper. He was not interested in stylistic irony or sign systems. He didn't see a need for it. He was drawn to the look of the frosting, that luscious icing- and he painted it with an viscosity of paint. Thiebaud taught at Sacramento City College and later at the University of California, Davis. He received national recognition in 1962 from 2 shows, one at Sidney Janis Gallery in New York and the other, the ground breaking, "New Painting of Common Objects" at the Pasadena Art Museum.
Bibliography
Fineberg, Jonathan. Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being. New Jersey. Prentice Hall. 2000.
Hughes, Robert. American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America. New York. Knopf.2004.
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