WAYNE THIEBAUD: CHARCOAL STILL LIFES 1964–1974
AT PAUL THIEBAUD GALLERY, NEW YORK
New York, NY: The Paul Thiebaud Gallery in New York is pleased to present an exhibition
of charcoal still life drawings by Wayne Thiebaud (American, b. 1920). The shows run from
November 6 to December 18, 2010. The group of twelve drawings represents a focused body
of early work originating from academic lessons assigned to the artist’s students that Thiebaud
undertook himself.
Most of the drawings are being shown for the first time in this tour; they were not studies for
future works of art. The exercises were rigorous challenges resulting in the employment of a
spare number of objects, “various and sundry things,” rendered without a true setting. Within
stark, blank backgrounds, the only interruptions to the objects’ existence are their magnified
shadows, as dominant as the forms from which they are created. Through the skillful use of
charcoal—laid down as a line or burnished into forms reflecting softly and luminously—proves
Thiebaud a master technician with any medium.
These quotidian items—a coffeepot, television set, book of matches—attest to Thiebaud’s
observational skills modulated by the use of caricature. The objects are used to define space;
the spatial relationships between the forms are exaggerated, unorthodox, and unrealistic with
the combination of differing perspectival vantage points. The sharply tilting planes upon which
the objects are oriented are a hallmark of Thiebaud’s compositions.
Thiebaud serves as Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Davis, where he began
teaching in 1960. He continues to live and work in Sacramento, CA. Amongst the numerous
prestigious honors and awards received throughout his lengthy career, he received the National
Medal of Arts in 1994, conferred by President Bill Clinton.
This exhibition was previously presented this year at Lawrence Markey, Inc., San Antonio, from
April 9–May 21 and at Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, from September 14–October 30.
A fully-illustrated catalogue with an essay by the critic and poet, Bill Berkson, accompanies the
exhibition.
