Wayne Thiebaud Review
Wayne
Thiebaud is a painter and printmaker from the Pop Art era who takes objects
and ideas from popular culture, along with other known artists like Andy Warhol, and inverts them in his
own way. Though Wayne Thiebaud and
other Pop artists like Warhol were contemporaries, their work draws very
different visual experiences of often similar inspirations. While Warhol sought to flatten objects with
uniformity and a methodical detachment from his work, Thiebaud uses thick
impasto in his paintings as well as different layers in his printing to create
a feeling of depth and personal touch.
One piece that illustrates this point is
Thiebaud’s Dark Cake from 1983. Though many have believed otherwise,
this work is actually a woodcut printed with water-based inks rather than
traditional oil-based. This gives
the cake the appearance of a moist exterior, almost dripping down to the
plate. The cake’s layering of
color and use of color to frame the shadows and edges helps create a strong
three-dimensionality and a painterly feel. In contrast, works by Warhol are often screen-printed using
flat plains of color layered in flattening way. Warhol and his followers sought to take away the human
element and create a detachment between themselves and their works. His workshop was even named “The
Factory.”
Another
work that highlights this difference is in how the two artists dealt with the
iconic character of Mickey Mouse in their works. While Thiebaud painted Mickey Mouse’s head onto one of his
signature cakes with a thick impasto, Warhol made prints of Mickey Mouse with a
cool detachment. Thiebaud’s use of
the Mickey character is not surprising since he had worked previously with
Disney in production, but his painting depicts Mickey in a more personalized
way, traditional to the character.
Warhol rendered Mickey in a flatter way, using blacks and greys to create
a colder, unfeeling character.
Though he often said his work did not have meaning, the piece can be
read as showing the coldness of the fame “industry” and how the character
itself does not hold any physical substance, it is only an image on the surface
of the canvas.
This exhibition will continue at the University Art Museum until 5/29/16
