|
Indepth Arts News:
"Wayne Thiebaud: A Paintings Retrospective"
2001-02-10 until 2001-04-29
Phillips Collection
Washington, DC,
USA
The first full retrospective in over 15 years of the work of California artist Wayne Thiebaud, one of the leading
figures in the field of modern American art, will be on view at The Phillips Collection February 10 to April 29,
2001. Wayne Thiebaud: A Paintings Retrospective is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in
celebration of the artistĚs 80th birthday. Approximately 100 oil paintings, watercolors, and pastels, will trace the
artistĚs development from the 1950s, when he first began to emerge as a significant national artist, to the
present day, as he continues to work with great vigor and inventiveness.
Born in Mesa, Arizona in 1920, Thiebaud began his career as a commercial artist and cartoonist. During the
1960s, his deadpan paintings of food and household goods associated him most closely with the Pop Art
movement, although he approached his subjects with a reverence and nostalgia unlike the more satirical work
of other Pop Artists. Since then, other favored themes have included large-scale isolated figures, San Francisco
cityscapes with steep plunges that geometrically restructure space and perspective, and landscapes inspired by
regions around the Bay Area and the Sierra foothills.
Drawn from public and private collections across the country, including the collections of the Thiebaud family,
the exhibition includes thematic groups that have rarely, if ever, been publicly exhibited, presenting the
opportunity for the most comprehensive overview of Thiebaud's career ever presented. The selection of
paintings and works on paper will highlight the pure visual and painterly power of Thiebaud's work while also
providing many new insights into the work and shedding light on the dialogue between representation and
abstraction that is central to the art of the 20th century.
Wayne Thiebaud: A Paintings Retrospective is accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue illustrating
approximately 100 of ThiebaudĚs most important works, all reproduced in color. Co-published by the Fine Arts
Museums of San Francisco and Thames and Hudson, the 216-page book includes scholarly essays by Dr.
Steven A. Nash, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco associate director and chief curator, and writer and critic
Adam Gopnik.
Wayne Thiebaud: A Paintings Retrospective has been organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Funding has been provided by the National Endowment for the Art, a Federal Agency. The catalogue is
supported in part by a grant from Sotheby's.
IMAGE:
Wayne Thiebaud (b. 1920)
Hill Street (Day City) (1981)
Oil on canvas
Collection of Robert Lehrman, Washington, DC
Art Copyright Wayne Thiebaud/
licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Related Links:
| | 
|
