Wayne Thiebaud’s pastel-hued still-life paintings and prints of baked goods, gumball machines, hot dogs and paint cans are often associated with the Pop art movement, thanks to the mass-cultural appeal of their content. Stylistically, however, Thiebaud eschewed the precision found in the art of such Pop giants as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol in favor of a more painterly approach, not unlike that of the Italian modernist Giorgio Morandi, whose dreamy paintings of vessels and household objects are simple yet richly atmospheric.
Thiebaud was born in Mesa, Arizona, in 1920 and grew up in Southern California from the age of six months. As a high schooler, he had a summer apprenticeship at Walt Disney Studios, which led to a stint as a graphic artist in the U.S. Army Air Forces’ First Motion Picture Unit during World War II. After the war, he attended the California State College at Sacramento on the G.I. Bill, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1951 and earning a master’s soon after. He went on to teach at the University of California, Davis, from 1960 to ’91.
In the late ’50s, time spent living in New York City proved crucial to Thiebaud’s career. There, he befriended Abstract Expressionist painters Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline and drew inspiration from the work of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Admiring the color and form on display in New York’s many bakeries, he began painting small canvases featuring rows of treats, which would become one of his central subjects. Though Thiebaud himself doesn’t identify as a Pop artist, the first major exhibition that brought him national renown was a seminal 1962 Pop show at the Sidney Janis Gallery in Manhattan. That same year, he was included in "New Painting of Common Objects” at the Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena, which also featured paintings by Ed Ruscha and Jim Dine. Iconic works such as Pie Counter (1963) demonstrate Thiebaud’s signature treatment of commonplace items with the grandeur and scale of a landscape.
Thiebaud’s interest in exaggerated colors and vernacular subject matter — characteristics that call to mind images found in mid-century advertising — made him an intriguing figure occupying the hazy borderlands between fine and commercial art. Yet through a masterful handling of paint, evocative use of light and poignant sense of isolation, Thiebaud’s work is unquestionably thoughtful and singular. His later forays into landscape painting, as seen in Steep Street (1989) or Country City (1988), bring to bear his bold use of color on complex urban scenes.
Pieces by Thiebaud can be found in the collections of major museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, among many others. In 1994, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton.
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Dark Hill River
By Wayne Thiebaud
Located in Palo Alto, CA
The Sacramento River deltas and levees near Thiebaud’s studio became a source of inspiration starting in the mid-1990s where he would sketch en plein air and then work combined ideas...
Engraving, Drypoint, Aquatint
Price Upon Request
Hill River
By Wayne Thiebaud
Located in Palo Alto, CA
Created in 2002, this Wayne Thiebaud Hill River, 2002 drypoint and aquatint in color on wove paper is hand signed by Wayne Thiebaud (Mesa, 1920 - Sacramento, 2021) in pencil in the l...
Drypoint, Aquatint
Price Upon Request
River Turns Etching, Pop Art Style, Signed, 21st Century Edition
By Wayne Thiebaud
Located in Laguna Beach, CA
Wayne Thiebaud has long been recognized as one of America’s most prominent modern artists. Probably best known for his straightforward, deadpan still-life paintings of the 1960s, and...
Drypoint, Etching
Price Upon Request
Heart Ridge Etching, Contemporary Drypoint Landscape, 21st Century
By Wayne Thiebaud
Located in Laguna Beach, CA
The images in Wayne Thiebaud's drypoints fill the space around them, carving into it. They are images of mountains. In one, only the mountaintop shows and a gigantic cloud is in the ...
Drypoint, Etching
$2,300
H 8.25 in W 11.88 in
'Riders at Sundown' — Mid-Century Southwest Regionalist Signed Aquatint
By Gene Kloss
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
'Riders at Sundown', aquatint and drypoint, edition 75, 1953, Kloss 451. Signed, titled, and annotated 'Artist's Proof' in pencil. A superb, richly-inked, atmospheric impression, in ...
Drypoint, Aquatint
Coenties Slip
By Charles Frederick William Mielatz
Located in Middletown, NY
Lower Manhattan and the Seaport as the artist imagined it would have appeared before 1835. New York: 1907. Etching with drypoint on Japon paper, 13 7/8 x 9 3/4 inches (353 x 248 mm...
Handmade Paper, Drypoint, Etching
Low Country (South Carolina)
By Elizabeth Verner
Located in Middletown, NY
An enchanting Southern landscape by the mother of the Charleston Renaissance, Elizabeth O'Neill Verner(1883-1979) Etching and drypoint on cream wove paper, 6 15/16 x 5 1/16 inches (175 x 128 mm), full margins. Signed, titled and numbered 72/100 in pencil, lower margin. Uniform age tone, minor surface soiling. A rich and inky impression of a magical southern landscape with figure tilling soil under Spanish moss covered oaks. A native of Charleston, South Carolina...
Drypoint, Etching
$3,875
H 24.38 in W 31.75 in D 0.75 in
Ancient Roman Architecture: Original Framed 18th C. Etching by G. Piranesi
By Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Located in Alamo, CA
"Veduta del Sepolcro della Famiglia Plauzia per la Strada Che Conduce da Roma a Tivoli vicino a Ponte Lugano" from "Le Antichità Romane" (Roman Antiquities), one of the most famous works by Piranesi. "Antichita" illustrates the tombs along the Appian Way...
Etching, Engraving, Drypoint
$3,600
H 35.5 in W 27.75 in
Salvador Dali, Le Cerf Malade Signed Etching Engraving, Color Lithograph Pochoir
By Salvador Dalí
Located in Surfside, FL
An original signed drypoint etching with color pochoir by Spanish artist Salvador Dali titled "La Cerf Malade", depicting a stag deer, from the Portfolio: Le Bestiaire de la Fontaine...
Color, Drypoint, Etching
$3,620
H 22.25 in W 14.97 in D 0.04 in
Salvador Dali - The Beloved Feeds Among the Lilies - Signed Aquatint
By Salvador Dalí
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
SALVADOR DALI (1904-1989) THE BELOVED FEEDS AMONG THE LILIES, 1971 Board for the series "The Song of Songs hymns" Aquatint and dry point on wove paper...
Drypoint, Aquatint
UNE JETEE EN ANGLETERRE
By Félix Hilaire Buhot
Located in Portland, ME
Buhot, Felix (French, 1847-1898). UNE JETEE EN ANGLETERRE. B & G 132, State two of eight. Etching with drypoint, aquatint and roulette, 1879. Signed in pencil, and with the red owl...
Drypoint, Etching, Aquatint
Manhattan Mountains
By Lawrence Wilbur
Located in Plano, TX
Manhattan Mountains. 1938. Etching and drypoint. 14 3/4 x 12 3/8 (sheet 17 1/4 x 14 3/4). Artist proof, previous to the edition of 40. An atmospheric impression printed on buff-colored laid paper. Signed and dated in the plate. Signed, titled, and annotated 'Final state' and 'Jones Proof'in pencil. Housed in an archival sleeve. Painter and printmaker Lawrence Nelson...
Drypoint, Etching
Village in Southern Italy (Edition 10/30)
By Ruth Kerkovius
Located in New York, NY
Ruth Kerkovius (Latvian/American 1921-1970) "Village in Southern Italy" Edition 10/30, Landscape Etching/Drypoint/Aquatint signed and numbered in Pencil, 16.25 x 24.75, Late 20th Century, 1967 Colors: Black, Brown, Blue, White, Red She was born in Latvia in 1921. She received her early training in Munich, Germany, working in theatre Costume History and Design, and in painting before she came to America. Once in New York she studied at the Art Students League, the School of Visual Arts, the Pratt Graphic Art Center under Frasconi, and then continued at Pratt on a fellowship to work under Michael Ponce de Leon...
Drypoint, Etching, Aquatint
View of the Meuse near Jupille
Located in Middletown, NY
An atmospheric perspective of the Meuse (Maas) river valley near the Belgian section of Jupille (now part of Liège), a region heavily frequented by landscape artists of the era for i...
Handmade Paper, Etching, Drypoint
L’Hiver a Paris ou La Neige a Paris
By Félix Hilaire Buhot
Located in New York, NY
Felix Buhot (1847-1898), L’Hiver a Paris ou La Neige a Paris, 1879, etching, aquatint, drypoint, roulette. [signed and dated in the plate Felix Buhot Par...
Drypoint, Etching, Aquatint
$1,250
H 18 in W 25 in
Cartas de Japon by Ray Smith surreal Dali esque print Japanese portfolio
By Ray Smith
Located in New York, NY
Ray Smith's aptitude for the surreal is apparent in this portfolio of six drypoint prints, presented in a portfolio case. Each image depicts an intriguing, fantastic landscape populated with chimeric nudes. Each one is carefully printed to appear as if doodled on lined notebook paper with ballpoint pen: Japanese letter paper chine-colle on Kizuki Hosho paper. Translated as "Letters from Japan," Cartas de Japon plays on tropes of an exotic, faraway land. The series of prints perhaps pictures Japan in the imagination of westerners, who for centuries speculated that those from other continents had wildly different bodies and customs. The title may be a reference to iconic Mexican director Carlos Velo's 1973 film Letters from Japan. Cartas del Japon, 1988-89 Portfolio of 6 drypoint prints printed on Japanese letter paper mounted on Kizuki Hosho paper Plate 6 x 7.8 in. Paper 18 x 23.4 in. Ed. 30 with three artist proofs. Printed by Hideharu Mishio, Norimasa Mizutani, and Marie Okada at Woodblock Workshop. Published by AC&T CORPORATION, Tokyo, 1989. Per the Broad: "Ray Smith’s paintings incorporate surrealistic and animistic tendencies informed by his Latin heritage as well as deep study of the history of modern art. Smith was born near the Texas/Mexico border...
Drypoint
City Edge
By Wayne Thiebaud
Located in London, GB
Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 60. Printed on wove paper. Published by Crown Point Press, San Francisco with their blindstamp.
Aquatint
Down 18th Street
By Wayne Thiebaud
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Down 18th Street" is an urban pictorial etching in blue from 1979. It is numbered 41/50, signed, and dated lower right in pencil. 19 3/4" x 15 3/4" art 34 1/4" x 30 1/4" framed Wa...
Etching
Palms
By Wayne Thiebaud
Located in London, GB
Etching, 1965. Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 25. Printed on Rives BFK paper. Published by Parasol Press, New York. 29.8 × 27.6 cm
Etching
Country City
By Wayne Thiebaud
Located in London, GB
Etching and aquatint printed in colours, 1988. Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 60. Printed on Somerset Satin paper. Published by Crown Point Press, San Francisco wi...
Aquatint, Etching
Cherry Stand, from Delights
By Wayne Thiebaud
Located in Laguna Beach, CA
Signed by the artist in pencil lower right and framed in a silver leaf frame.
Etching