Art Profiles: 99-Year Old American Painter Wayne Thiebaud’s “Classic Pop”

From Christie’s (June 27, 2020):

Wayne Thiebaud - American PainterOne of the largest canvases from Thiebaud’s groundbreaking early period, it depicts a row of arcade machines, decorated in a vibrant mix of oranges and yellows…With their foreshortened bodies, the machines press towards the picture plane like the cakes and hot dogs in Thiebaud’s other works, inviting the viewer to reach in and taste.

It’s a classic of Pop art, a masterful reflection of the post-war boom in consumerism.

In November 2020, Wayne Thiebaud — the American artist best-known for his still lifes of pies, pastries and other tempting treats — turns 100.

Thiebaud also had a lot of fun with the backglasses: instead of cartoons and flashing lights, he decorated them with the ghostly, geometric forms of Frank Stella’s Concentric Squares, Jasper Johns’ Targets and Ellsworth Kelly’s Colors for a Large Wall.

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