SPRINGVILLE - Wayne Thiebaud still has pluck in his brush: At 87, he's been able to maintain a level of spontaneity and risk in his work that other artists would unquestionably envy.
In "Wayne Thiebaud: 70 Years of Painting," at the Springville Museum of Art through July 27, the artist offers an 84-piece, retrospective glance at his early paintings and academic drawings from the 1930s-'50s as well as paintings covering the 1960s through 2007.
Thiebaud (Tee-bo) was born to Mormon parents in 1920 in Mesa, Ariz. His family moved to Long Beach, Calif., when he was 6 months old. Later, during his high school years, Thiebaud apprenticed at the Walt Disney Studio during the summer.
The artist spent part of his youth north of St. George. "From 1929-33 he lived at Thorley Ranch," said Vern Swanson, director of the Springville Museum of Art, "and he still speaks of that time with fondness."
(Because of his time spent in Utah, the museum recently named Thiebaud one of "Utah's Most Honored Living Artists.")
In 1941, Thiebaud earned a degree from Sacramento State College. From 1938-49, he worked as a cartoonist and designer in California, New York and served as an artist in the U.S. Navy.
At 32, Thiebaud earned a master's degree and began teaching art at Sacramento State College in 1952.
Best known for his thickly rendered, iconic still lifes of conventional American products, such as cakes, pies, sandwiches, cosmetics and toys, Thiebaud also applied his trademark bright palette and creamy brushwork to San Francisco cityscapes and Sacramento landscapes, both communicating through shimmering color and conflated perspective.
"He's using multiple points of perspective in these paintings," said Nicole C. Romney, who co-curated the exhibit with Traci A. Fieldsted and Jessica R. Weiss. "You have aerial, linear, atmospheric, even isometric perspective as in 'Ocean City' (2006-07). The painting gives you the feeling that you're rushing through the city in a taxi, going up and down and over and across."
"Fields & Furrows" (2002), a large Sacramento landscape, is the show's most visually successful example of the artist's multipoint outlook: His flawless use of color, line and form, as well as his hallmark "blue shadows," make this exquisite piece a must-see.
In this month's American Art Review, Fieldsted discusses the exhibit: "For Thiebaud, the execution of the applied paint is as important as the subjects he depicts. The tactile surfaces of his more familiar food and confection images that made Thiebaud famous are layered with his signature impasto and bravura."
In "Dark Candy Apples" (1983), "Watermelon Slices" (1963), "Food Bowls" (2005) and "Fish on Platter" (1980), Fieldsted's claim finds fulfillment.
A painting that best incorporates all of the artist's craft is "Two Kneeling Figures" (1966). The staid composition, emotionless features on the women, the "lickable" surface quality of the paint, the single color background, all these make the piece a highlight of the show.
"With work that is both traditional and modern, Thiebaud fuses together different styles to create paintings that are relaxed yet playful," said Weiss. "His paintings reference and respect other artists, styles and media while still creating a new and one-of-a-kind experience for the viewer."
For example, the left figure in his "Beach Boys" (1959) is remarkably similar to Cezanne's "The Bather" (1885). Yet in the context of the new painting, it only becomes a reference, bringing a knowing and approving smile to those familiar with the Cezanne.
In her article, Fieldsted makes mention of an interview with Los Angeles Times writer Christopher Knight, wherein Thiebaud was quoted as saying he paid homage to masters of the past. "I'm very influenced by the tradition of painting and not at all self-conscious about identifying my sources. I actually steal things from people that I can use ... just blatant plagiarism."
Thiebaud's method of incorporating and reworking another's image is often employed by modern artists, particularly those in Pop Art, a school to which Thiebaud was relegated by art historians when he was included in the 1962 group exhibit, "New Painting of Common Objects," at the Pasadena Art Museum. Other artists in the show were Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Ed Ruscha.
But Thiebaud can't be pigeonholed. "Overwhelmingly upbeat, his brightly colored paintings contrast with the satirical pessimism of most Pop Art," Romney wrote in the recent issue of Fine Art Connoisseur.
According to Romney, Thiebaud was painting consumer objects long before Warhol. And while some of his work is illusionistic, it is not realistic.
In the exhibit's concluding gallery, a selection of beach paintings are displayed, many for the first time in this traveling exhibit.
As a onetime lifeguard and professed beach junkie, Thiebaud is able to resurrect sand, sun and water with playful chutzpa — all from memory; the paradox of the frisky and serene is intriguing and visually very satisfying.
However, upon first experiencing these paintings, you might wonder as to the reason for the decreased emphasis on the figure. The paintings work well as figure ground relationship statements, but after viewing Thiebaud's "Ballroom Trio IV" (2003-07), you wonder if the artist resorting to the technique of reducing his characters to mere blotches is due to his diminished figurative skill, something some artists face in their advancing years.
Hopefully, Thiebaud has simply returned to his earlier expressionist roots, as in "Beach Boys" (1959).
If you attend "Wayne Thiebaud: 70 Years of Paintings" thinking you will encounter a collection of the artist's greatest pieces, you will be disappointed. However, what is on display is a praiseworthy show that fills in blanks and fleshed out a career; we are offered a more comprehensive look into how Thiebaud became Thiebaud.
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