Wayne Thiebaud, born in 1920, is commonly affiliated with the Pop Art movement. Many of his more well-known works consist of images of cakes, pastries, and makeup. Colors in these images tend to be bright and shadows are usually exaggerated. Repetition is also a common theme in his paintings, as none of them include just one object. The duplicates and copies represent a sort of production line. This repetition occurs because of Thiebaud's fascination with mass culture, also known as consumer culture.
Aside from the desserts, Thiebaud paints things like landscapes, cityscapes, and various characters such as Mickey Mouse. Thiebaud considered himself to be a painter, not an artist. Painting consumed his life. From the time he was 18, he has worked as a cartoonist in California and New York, where he continues to live and work today.
Studying Wayne Thiebaud for this artist study was an obvious choice, as his subject matter is similar to mine. I am also influenced by his use of color and shadows and admire these qualities. They are two things I strive for in my work as well.
I also just love the Pop Art movement. The fact that Theibaud supposedly had some influence on this movement makes him even more appealing to study. It's interesting that he had friends like William de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, who are all artists I like and have studied before.
While researching Thiebaud, I also learned not only about his life but also about how he created some of his more popular images. By focusing on the subject's basic shape and isolating shapes in the colors of the object, he was able to create defined, crisp images. This is a technique I want to incorporate into my work to make the images have more of a pop art quality.
Additional Resources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/arts/design/wayne-thiebaud-retrospective-at-acquavella-galleries.html
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Wayne-Thiebaud-is-Not-a-Pop-Artist.html
Aside from the desserts, Thiebaud paints things like landscapes, cityscapes, and various characters such as Mickey Mouse. Thiebaud considered himself to be a painter, not an artist. Painting consumed his life. From the time he was 18, he has worked as a cartoonist in California and New York, where he continues to live and work today.
Studying Wayne Thiebaud for this artist study was an obvious choice, as his subject matter is similar to mine. I am also influenced by his use of color and shadows and admire these qualities. They are two things I strive for in my work as well.
I also just love the Pop Art movement. The fact that Theibaud supposedly had some influence on this movement makes him even more appealing to study. It's interesting that he had friends like William de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, who are all artists I like and have studied before.
While researching Thiebaud, I also learned not only about his life but also about how he created some of his more popular images. By focusing on the subject's basic shape and isolating shapes in the colors of the object, he was able to create defined, crisp images. This is a technique I want to incorporate into my work to make the images have more of a pop art quality.
Additional Resources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/arts/design/wayne-thiebaud-retrospective-at-acquavella-galleries.html
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Wayne-Thiebaud-is-Not-a-Pop-Artist.html