Wayne Thiebaud, "Student"

    Oh how I love to switch gears.  Last week we a had  mysterious mid-twentieth century landscape and this week let's   jump forward a few years to a subject many will find reasonably familiar.
  Our artist is Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021).   It has been a long while since we looked at one of his paintings. We studied a landscape back in September, 2019, and now we turn to an entirely different subject.   On first look it would be easy to assume that a painting of three objects simple, but let's see what we find.
  
 First it is good to remember that Thiebaud was a teacher.  He taught for most of his adult life at Sacramento City College and University of California.  Looking closely at the painting we see a female student at a desk with a clock behind her.  She  is looking straight at us!   We are part of this scene!   She must be listening to us, we must be the teacher.   Thiebaud has painted a scene he saw everyday, commonplace for him.  The only thing I find completely confusing, is that she has a notebook, which appears blank, but no pencil.   There are no school books stacked under her desk, nothing, only the single notebook. 

            I did some reading on this painting, and one author stated that the shadows don't match up.  I am unable to see this, believing the major light source is out of our sight, but above and to our right.  Also this author found significance in the time on the clock, and I think this is noteworthy.    Our young woman seems to be in very early adulthood,  maybe between 19 - 22.    The time at 1:23 could be said to mark the same time, still reasonably early, and almost into a full day.   

   It is impossible to leave a Thiebaud painting without mentioning color.   He is a master at it.   Do pull this work up and examine the color construction.   A whole rainbow has been used to develop it.   Objects are not one or two colors but an interesting range.   There is even a yellow-orange outline of the desk shadow on the floor, with the same color separating the floor from the wall.     

   "Student" was completed in 1968.   It is an oil on linen measuring 60 inches high by 48 inches wide, so it is very large.   It is part of the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California.   

Make Art a part of your life, it's a beautiful thing to do.





 
 
  



 


 

Comments

  1. Charlotte HarguthMarch 22, 2022 at 7:24 AM

    The contrast of his work is so interesting. Even though he was influenced by artists from Monet to Warhol, he stayed true to his own style. The yellow/gold color is intriguing, even in her pant legs. I do want a pencil in her hand!! The size is impressive. I studied the shadows too and questioned the one under her right arm!! I read his bio and wondered if this was his daughter from his first marriage, who sometimes modeled for him. He paints with strong lines and solid edges whether realistic or abstracted. His work has great variety. Is he still painting daily in his 90's?? Probably! A fun artist to study!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wayne Thiebaud, Sunset Streets

Image
   In giving title to this landscape, California artist, Wayne Thiebaud not only provides the location, but also the time of day.  Knowing that Thiebaud is a California artist provides the last clue to guessing the probably location.  Smartly, The San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art purchased this painting for its permanent collection in 1986, a year after it was completed.  Sunset Streets is an oil on canvas measuring 48" x 35".      Wayne Thiebaud was born in 1920 and resides in California. He is one of several artists creating a distinct California aesthetic using heavy pigment and exaggerated color.   He is best known for his commonplace objects, figures, and landscapes. of which this is a perfect example.    The composition of this work is amazing.  Right down the center, at a slight tilt is this blue-black stripe, K shape, beginning with a heavy base and capped with a large triangle of sorts.  The painting is a geometry lover's dream, completely dedicated to ever
Read more

Nature Abhors A Vacuum, Helen Frankenthraller

Image
  Today let us look at an acrylic painting on canvas by American artist Helen Frankenthraller (1928-2011).    Nature Abhors a Vacuum is a huge work of art measuring 103" high, 112" wide.  This is over 8 feet high and 9 feet long!  You can stand next to it at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.; and to do so would completely immerse yourself in this huge spread of color.   Nature Abhors a Vacuum was painted in 1973 and is a perfect example of a school of painting Frankenthraller helped develop called color field painting.  Here she stretched raw unprimed canvas on the floor and poured thinned acrylic paint on it.  In doing so she created floating fields of translucent color.  Being that the canvas was raw, the paint stuck to the fabric more like it was dyed, than brushed on. It was an exciting and new process!    Our title, Nature Abhors a Vacuum  immediately indicates a landscape, however I think it a disservice to confine our reaction to so simple an understan
Read more

Childe Hassam "The Avenue in Rain"

Image
    I probably should have saved this for the 4th of July, but that is a little far off and this work is among Childe Hassam's finest.      I have known of Childe Hassam (1859 - 1935) for a very long time, but only recently did Wikimedia straighten me out about the correct way to pronounce his first name.  It seems the "e" is silent; and his last name is pronounced as written, with two syllables.        From what I have read, Hassam was a pretty sharp guy, and possibly a little  arrogant.  He created 3,000 some works of art in his career and lived his entire adult life on the proceeds of their sale.  This is quite remarkable.  Most artists, (at least before 1930) had to supplement their income by teaching, commissioned portraits or careers outside the art field.  But Hassam figured out not only how to market his work, but also what subjects would be popular.  Timing is always a big issue, and he was at the forefront of marketing impressionist paintings to Americans.      
Read more