Wayne Thiebaud

Wayne Thiebaud – Early drawing talent, military service, and art education

Wayne Thiebaud was born in Mesa, Arizona on 15 November 1920. His parents were Mormons and moved to Long Beach in California when the artist was 6 months old. Thiebaud discovered his inclination for art while still at school and attracted attention with technically adept and pointed caricatures of his teachers and classmates, and his talent brought him into contact with the Walt Disney Studios where he worked as assistant illustrator in the school summer holiday in 1936. He eventually began his main profession as cartoonist and designer in 1938 which he pursued for more than a decade until 1949. During the war years of 1942 to 1945, Wayne Thiebaud served in the Royal Air Force, where his artistic talents were also put to use in the Film Unit, with Ronald Reagan as his supervisor. After the war, he initially studied at San José State University and finally at California State University in Sacramento which he graduated with a Bachelor and Master of Arts.

Artistic breakthrough at the beginning of the 1960s

Immediately after graduating, Wayne Thiebaud took a lectureship at Sacramento City College and in 1960, a professorship at the University of California. He taught there until 1991 and influenced numerous art students, including the later Pop artist Mel Ramos. Thiebaud spent some time in New York in the 1950s where he made friends with the artist couple Elaine and Willem de Kooning, and also came into contact with the painter Franz Kline. Their work influenced Thiebaud as did the art of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, who he met at the same time. In 1960 he held his first solo exhibition in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and whilst his first exhibitions met with little success, another exhibition in the gallery of Sidney Janis two years later gave the young painter the longed-for breakthrough and brought him and his work wide recognition. Thiebaud had a close friendship with the art dealer Allan Stone from 1961 which continued until Stone’s death in 2006, and from then on, Wayne Thiebaud was represented by his son.

Colourful key pictures of a unique epoch

Wayne Thiebaud undertook many study trips to the American East Coast as well as Europe and Mexico, but remained true to his homeland of California his whole life. He painted still lifes, as only these could actualise Pop Art: chewing gum machines, cake slices, lipsticks, and frequently found his motifs in shop windows or cafés, where he had himself had worked as a young man. In 1972, he took part in documenta in Kassel, and in the São Paolo Biennale in 1967 and 1997. To mark the twelfth birthday of the internet search engine Google, Thiebaud designed his own logo, a so-called doodle, that adorned the home page for one day.

Wayne Thiebaud passed away in Sacramento on 25 December 2021 at the age of 101. His two marriages produced several children, including the model Twinka Thiebaud and the art dealer Paul LeBaron Thiebaud.