Remembering California Pop Artist Wayne Thiebaud

We're saddened by the passing of Wayne Thiebaud this past weekend at the age of 101. An icon of Californian Pop Art, Thiebaud came to painting from an early career as an animator and commercial artist. By the early 1960s, he began creating deft and richly colored landscapes and cityscapes, as well as everyday items that became his signature subjects. Far from the flat surfaces of many of his contemporaries, however, Thiebaud rendered this familiar fare with thick, lushly painted swaths of color, like the icing on a cake. Bright and sun-soaked, his unmistakable vignettes of the ordinary are filled with palpable pleasures of American life.

"Cake," 1963, by Wayne Thiebaud © Wayne Thiebaud / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York h