The Sad and Painful Truth of Thiebaud's Art

In looking at still-life paintings, I think we forget that those we consider the masters were merely painting everyday scenes from their lives. So often inexperienced artists think they must paint fruit in a copper bowl or a fish on a plate if a painting is to be considered a still-life. How refreshing it is to see still-lifes from the world we live in. Or is it?

Let's consider Wayne Thiebaud. Born on November 15, 1920 in Mesa, Arizona he enjoyed a happy and basically uneventful childhood. He didn't have any great dreams of becoming an artist. In high school, he played basketball, worked backstage on the school plays and liked music. Yet these experiences had a lasting effect - particularly his theatrical exposure to lighting and scenery. Eventually after taking a few drawing and art appreciation courses, he developed an interest in illustration - particularly in cartoons. This led him to work briefly for Walt Disney studios drawing the in-between frames of animation characters and later, while in the military, he became an army cartoonist.

After his stint in the military, he worked freelance as a commercial artist. He created movie posters for Universal-International Studios and designed sets for publicity shoots. Later, he created an original comic strip for Rexall Drug Company. Interested in layout and design, he found himself drawn to the art of Mondrian, Matisse, and even Degas and he began to read about art. Only then did he begin to paint, and like most artists, recognition was long in coming.

After years of painting and studying art, recognition came in 1962 when Wayne Thiebaud exhibited his still-lifes of food - modern food as we see around us. His paintings displayed ice cream confections, a club sandwich on a plate with a scoop of potato salad and a couple of black olives, candy in a gumball machine, and pie slices on plates in rows as displayed in coffee shops. Ordinary scenes of ordinary everyday life that we take for granted. But Thiebaud lights these food scenes up as if under florescent lights, sometimes glaring and not too appealing. What he shows us isn't very appetizing food. I wouldn't want to eat it. Still, it is familiar - these food scenes he paints - and I know, I must admit, that I have eaten this food, only now I am not so certain how I feel about that.

Thiebaud paints more than food, but he never paints to flatter his subject or us. He might paint a hammer, a roll of tape, and a screwdriver with masterfully done colorful shadows. He has even painted a pile of bright colorful neckties, and a portrait of his wife in a bikini, but none of it is flattering. It is simply as he saw it. Picasso claimed, "We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth." And when I look at the works by Wayne Thiebaud I know this to be true.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic