Exhibition of Wayne Thibaud - Essay Example

Wayne Thibaud is a Californian painter who is best known for his iconic still lifes of all-American foods and products, such as cakes, pies, sandwiches, cosmetics, and toys. He is also celebrated for his vertiginous San Francisco cityscapes and his richly hued views of Northern California. Known for his plain-spoken style and self-deprecating sense of humor, Thibaud links himself to the long tradition of painting from observation and speaks in defense of painting to audiences regularly. Born in Arizona, Thibaud moved to California in his youth. A student of commercial art, he spent several years as a professional cartoonist at the Walt Disney Studios and elsewhere before moving on to teach art. Thibaud's knowledge of and respect for commercial illustration greatly informed his subsequent work, which is marked by its formal geometric order and clearly defined forms. After briefly working in the dominant abstract expressionist style, Thibaud settled on realism as his primary mode of expression in the mid-1950s. In the 1960's Thibaud received his Master's from Sacramento State and later became an assistant Professor at the University of California, Davis-where he would remain through the 1970s. It was during his tenure at UC Davis when he created some of his most iconic works. In 1963, Thibaud turned increasingly to figure and landscape painting. Beginning in the 1970s, he began painting San Francisco cityscapes, wildly distorted views of the city's streets and hillsides that are reminiscent not only of Richard Diebenkorn's cityscapes from the mid-sixties but also the Precisionist paintings of Charles Sheeler and Georgia O'Keefe. His most recent landscapes dating from the mid-1990s share many of the same spatial and planar distortions seen in the cityscapes but utilize hotter color and flattened planes to create the imagery (Wayne Thibaud: 70 years). Although he has been frequently associated with Pop Art due to his choice of subject matter, Thibaud does not consider himself a Pop artist, nor does he align himself with the Bay Area figurative movement. His painting does not critique American culture so much as celebrate it, and his brushwork is more individual and expressive than the flat, mechanized style favored by Pop artists such as Andy Warhol and James Rosenquist. Thibaud himself disavows an allegiance to any style, preferring to concentrate on the discipline of painting and his formal concerns. This focus places him in context with earlier painters he admires, including the 18th-century French painter Chardin, Giorgio Morandi, and Edward Hopper. Wayne Thibaud was awarded the National Medal of Arts and a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In 2001, he was honored with a retrospective and monograph organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco's Legion of Honor. The show to traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C, and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas. His work is held by major museums in the United States and abroad. His recent series of beach painting was influenced by his youth which dates back to the 1920s and 1930s in Long Beach, California. Thibaud served as a city lifeguard which gave him a unique perspective of the coastline and activities happening at the beach. This was the first impression of beach culture that was marked on his tab (Wayne Thibaud: 70 years). At present, Thibaud continues to work on themes inspired by Southern California beach culture. He fuses his vivid colors with these subjects slightly diverging from the subjects of his early works. Comparing Thibaud's early works from his recent works, most of the subjects of his early works were foods such as cakes, pies and sandwiches. An example of his early work is the painting Cakes, pictured below, which was created in 1963. During his later years, his works incorporate landscapes and street scenes. Such is evident with his painting Rivers and Farms, pictured below, which was done in 2007. His early works and later works still possess the vibrant and rich colors that Thibaud uses. His bold brushstrokes were also consistent all through out his works. The apparent difference in his early works and recent works were the changes on his subjects. During his early works, specifically during the 1960's, he had usually featured mainly food and other inanimate objects as his subject. It was also noticeable that his early works have a touch of the Pop Art culture. Although his early works were on the Pop Art side, his colors were a splendid blend of subtle and vibrant colors with shadows that gives the artwork its photorealistic aspect. On the other hand, Thibaud's 2007 painting, Rivers and Farms, seemingly sends out the sentiments of the artist in reflection of his youth. This was also evident with his recent works with subjects focusing on the beaches of California. In his landscape works, his touch in blending the vibrant and subtle colors is still eminent. Coupled with his well defined brushstrokes, in this 2007 piece, Thibaud gives texture to his subject of the fields and the river. On the contrary to his photorealistic tendencies in his paintings, in the Rivers and Farms piece, this was not performed since the features of the fields and river were not detailed adding to this were the colors that obviously suggest that the painting was not one of Thibaud's photorealistic paintings. Some of the authorities in the art world give their views on Thibaud. One of such art reviews says that Thibaud's exquisitely wrought, tactile paint surfaces are so thoroughly modern that they obscure a crucial point about his importance. He is that rare thing: a classicist in comic mode. He has a classical hand that would delight a Quattrocentro eye. That, and an affinity for the ideal that breaks through quotidian things, insures that his work will endure long beyond contemporary fashion, beyond even the vacant sublime of Abstract Expressionism. There is something prophetic, deeply humane, about his sympathy with the ordinary (Mullarkey). An art review for his recent exhibit says that Thibaud's beach themes envision this strange new Eden. California had been awash in transplants, especially from the Midwest, since the 1920s. Further stating that Thibaud's painting of the bathers might in part be indicative of his personal circumstance, since it roughly coincides with his second marriage and the adoption of his new wife's son. Yet, like the paintings of his California contemporaries, it also teeters on the brink of a new cultural reality -- one that is about to engulf the traditional European idea of just what "being modern" means (Knight). These reviews prove that Thibaud as an authentic California artist. With his unparalleled style of harmonizing Pop art and photorealism in every artwork, his innovative approach guarantees his place among the California artists. Doubtlessly possessing the uniqueness and originality of his style evident in his artworks as California artists are known for. CITED WORKS Knight, Christopher. "Surf's up for Wayne Thibaud The artist, known for his images of treats, also focused on beach life. A Laguna Beach exhibition explores." The Los Angeles Times. 15 November 2007. Art Review. 7 December 2007. Mullarkey, Maureen. "Everyday Enchantment." The New York Sun. 8 November 2007 p 3, Arts and Letters. 7 December 2007. Read More