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In Constauld’s story, Wayne Thiebaud’s doomed America

Wayne Thiebaud, The lines of the pie1961. Oil on canvas, 46 x 66 cm., From the collection of the Wayne Thiebaud Foundation. © Wayne Thiebaud / Vaga at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2025. Image: Wayne Thiebaud Foundation

Flattering views of America are not a dime a dozen these days, but “Wayne Thiebaud. American still life” (If it happens on January 18, 2026) in London at Gondauuold Gallery offers one person from the current chaos. The Californian artist (1920-20-20) broke into the scene in the 1960s with signs of the savish boston creme Pienser and notices to distribute gumballs, allowing what was supposed to be remembered with paint. In fact, Thiebaud saw his work as speaking to that archetype of the classic archetype of still life as practiced by the likes of Paul Cézard and Édouard Manet. Thiebaud cemented American consumer culture as its sacred offering. The crown of the Laureate “The Laureate of Manalters,” There is a kind of domestic help in his work that is touching, one that makes other American Cornersrensresta like social inequality and has a common desire. Even an apparently symbolic choice like the Jackpot machine, painted in 1962, counts as economic hope as opposed to manipulation or coercion.

To reach the Wayne Thiebaud Show on the third floor of the court, visitors must pass through the 20th century art rooms. To the left of the entrance to the temporary exhibition space is a young lady in a powder room Elsewhere in the room are van goghs Peach trees in bloom (1889) and Claude Monet’s Shoreline of Antibes (1888). These delicate palettes serve as a fitting prelude to America’s pastel oeuvre. However, within the exhibition itself, Thiebaud’s work is compared to that of Giorogou

A painting by Wayne Thiebaud on the subject of four machines from 1962 features a row of brightly colored vintage machines with geometric patterns, stars and targets, each upright against a flat gray wall.A painting by Wayne Thiebaud on the subject of four machines from 1962 features a row of brightly colored vintage machines with geometric patterns, stars and targets, each upright against a flat gray wall.
Wayne Thiebaud, Four pinball machines1962. Oil on canvas, 172.7 x 182.8cm, from a private collection. © Wayne Thiebaud Vaga at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2025. Images courtesy of TOAFELLA GALLERICES

The first painting on view in this exhibition shows a harsher, harsher brashier and darker palette than one familiar to Thiebaud: its years 1956-59 Meat meat A much more exposed relative of the airlock is later used for the delivery of coffee, cold breakfast cones or waiting ice cream cones. It is very comparable with his similar themed Delicatessen Counter Since 1962, with its stacks of Prim Pheres and Torages of Souseges. Thiebaud soon graduated to beautiful, yet lightweight hands, considered “buttery brushstrokes covering the subject of creamy cakes.” Although pop art was the phenomenon of his creation – and similarly the tokens of American work – thiebaud’s work shares the tension of the written document. He shows the smoking of the food production but he deliberately interfered with the small details to divert the minutes. Attention to contrasts and creativity separates the themes used and approaches other artists.

A black-and-white portrait of a young young Thiebaud sits down in front of a wood-paneled wall, his arms crossed over his knees, and one of his early pie paintings hangs above his head.A black-and-white portrait of a young young Thiebaud sits down in front of a wood-paneled wall, his arms crossed over his knees, and one of his early pie paintings hangs above his head.
Wayne Thiebaud in 1961, photographer Betty Jean Thiebaud. Collection of the Wayne Thiebaud foundation. © Wayne Thiebaud Vaga at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2025

Thiebaud’s work is not only about its inanimate subjects but also about the vast majority. The profile of the sweets removed the turuca’s quickness greedy greediness of happiness in grace. Even the non-edibles, like the panorama of YO-YOS, were seen eating their bells and stars, as decorations like neighborhood cakes. Through these repetitions, his world is given color and charm. That feeling of abundance, which you feel through the use of ordinary appetites, can be characterized by formal qualities that will be mutually reinforcing. As the peppermint counter’s wall text notes, “display windows filled with candies are like mysterious paintings themselves.” At Thiebaud’s Four pinball machinesdouble square backglasp from Frank Stella and Elsworth Kelly.

But Thiebaud’s work is interesting to revisit within today’s obsession with Food Photography. On Instagram, that hashtag alone has 122 million posts. One thinks of Laila Gohar and her installation of styled food or the New York feeling of BUKERY from Lucie with her creations with slogans. The beauty regimes are simply amazing to see – that felt as much fun as the actual use. Although as a person he worked in a restaurant, there is a sense that Thiebaud had an understanding of hospitality as a lens. Becca Schuh wrote in her story Bad servant: “I have had help in innumerable conversations about how mental work is work, how one needs to make planners where he lives and thinks and makes the mind that holds the things of life.” (Perhaps speaking to this conflict between the mind and the mind, in the writings of Camor Exhox, the word “belie” -failure to print which means that it is possible to appear added to a certain person who is not a good person, there is a sense that the service has people its beauty. Quotiidian projection from the uncalled for to recovery works in the performance of a certain type of certain practices – to appreciate the neglect.

In the section of the Annex corresponding to this period on the first floor in the painting gallery “Wayne Thiebaud. Hayne Thiebaud. (Two decades before he became a painter, Thiebaud worked as a portrait, cartoonist director and very lovely etchings, he presents lovely signs of ice watermelon, a comforting plate and a table of salt. Many Etchings are hand-painted watercolors, pastel and crayon, with a gentle and lovely palette. Prints capture the richness of their subject matter more than paintings, and the medium feels like a real new way of communicating. Thiebaud compared the act of drawing – related to painting – to translate language: a different texture and texture, but the same meaning.

A 1969 painting by Wayne Thiebaud shows an organized display of lollipops, candy wrappers, and candies on trays, set against a clean background.A 1969 painting by Wayne Thiebaud shows an organized display of lollipops, candy wrappers, and candies on trays, set against a clean background.
Wayne Thiebaud, The candy counter1969. 120.7 x 91.8 cm, from a private collection. © Wayne Thiebaud Vaga at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2025

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