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Lot Essay
"It started out just as a sort of crazy problem to set for myself to orchestrate abstract elements with the subject matter. As soon as I did that, as I say, I couldn't help but look at it and laugh, 'That certainly has to be the end of me as a serious painter--a slice of pie.' But I couldn't leave it alone...It just seemed to be the most genuine thing which I had done." - Wayne Thiebaud
Wayne Thiebaud is a consummate painter, one equally accomplished in landscape, portraiture and still-life, but it is the latter category for which he is best known. "Thiebaud's still-life paintings, and particularly those of food, were his first mature works and they rapidly built his reputation after his landmark exhibition at Allan Stone Gallery in New York in 1962" (S. McGough, Thiebaud Selects Thiebaud, Sacramento, 1996, p. 4).
Dating from 1961, the artist's first breakthrough year, Untitled (Pie) is one of the very first classic examples of one of Thiebaud's most sought after subject, which appears to be chocolate cream pie. It is structured in an architectonic matter, with the sharp edge of the pie cutting forward like the prow of a ship. In this year, he rejected the flashy Abstract Expressionist flourishes of his pre-1961 work, setting himself the challenge to "see if I can't just present something as clear as I can" (W. Thiebaud, Thiebaud Selects Thiebaud, p. 10).
Thiebaud's art has generally been interpreted in two ways. Firstly, as a Pop artist whose subjects of candy store counters, hot dogs and cakes are both reflections on and indictments of America and the delights and temptations of its consumer culture. Secondly, he is also seen in a much more conservative light, as a realist painter in the vein of Caravaggio, Vermeer, Chardin, Eakins and Wyeth. Perhaps the fact that both interpretations seem equally true is one of the reasons for Thiebaud's broad and enduring populatiry. His works speak to a wide audience--to both the cognoscenti and the uninitiated--and in the classic Duchampian sense, is "completed" by the viewer who is influenced by pre-conceived notions about what the artist is trying to say.
Although small in scale, Untitled (Pie) is painted in a monumental scale, elevating the solitary slice to icon status. In classic Thiebaud style, the paint is lushly applied. In contrast to the spontaneous and angst-ridden strokes of his Abstract Expressionist predecessors, the intensely controlled strokes leave nothing to chance and have a deadpan and rigid effect, not an emotive one. The fields of white and buttercup are highlighted with flashes of cerulean blue and burnt orange. He calls this effect "halation" in which the color contrasts create a vibration, causing the contours to glow, which provide the work with its own formal drama.
Untitled (Pie) is a rare and singular example of Thiebaud's art, both historically important and exquisitely realized, coming to the market for the first time 40 years after its creation.
Wayne Thiebaud is a consummate painter, one equally accomplished in landscape, portraiture and still-life, but it is the latter category for which he is best known. "Thiebaud's still-life paintings, and particularly those of food, were his first mature works and they rapidly built his reputation after his landmark exhibition at Allan Stone Gallery in New York in 1962" (S. McGough, Thiebaud Selects Thiebaud, Sacramento, 1996, p. 4).
Dating from 1961, the artist's first breakthrough year, Untitled (Pie) is one of the very first classic examples of one of Thiebaud's most sought after subject, which appears to be chocolate cream pie. It is structured in an architectonic matter, with the sharp edge of the pie cutting forward like the prow of a ship. In this year, he rejected the flashy Abstract Expressionist flourishes of his pre-1961 work, setting himself the challenge to "see if I can't just present something as clear as I can" (W. Thiebaud, Thiebaud Selects Thiebaud, p. 10).
Thiebaud's art has generally been interpreted in two ways. Firstly, as a Pop artist whose subjects of candy store counters, hot dogs and cakes are both reflections on and indictments of America and the delights and temptations of its consumer culture. Secondly, he is also seen in a much more conservative light, as a realist painter in the vein of Caravaggio, Vermeer, Chardin, Eakins and Wyeth. Perhaps the fact that both interpretations seem equally true is one of the reasons for Thiebaud's broad and enduring populatiry. His works speak to a wide audience--to both the cognoscenti and the uninitiated--and in the classic Duchampian sense, is "completed" by the viewer who is influenced by pre-conceived notions about what the artist is trying to say.
Although small in scale, Untitled (Pie) is painted in a monumental scale, elevating the solitary slice to icon status. In classic Thiebaud style, the paint is lushly applied. In contrast to the spontaneous and angst-ridden strokes of his Abstract Expressionist predecessors, the intensely controlled strokes leave nothing to chance and have a deadpan and rigid effect, not an emotive one. The fields of white and buttercup are highlighted with flashes of cerulean blue and burnt orange. He calls this effect "halation" in which the color contrasts create a vibration, causing the contours to glow, which provide the work with its own formal drama.
Untitled (Pie) is a rare and singular example of Thiebaud's art, both historically important and exquisitely realized, coming to the market for the first time 40 years after its creation.