Wayne Thiebaud: American Still Life | The Courtauld Gallery
There are no sinister overtones or dark corners in Wayne Thiebaud’s work. The American artist, who died in 2021 but is best known for his 1960s oil paintings of cakes and pies, aimed for abundance, even joy.
As an artistic stance, this is quite radical, especially when compared with his peers: the butch murkiness of Rauschenberg and Rothko; Warhol’s alienated cool; the Minimalists’… minimalism.
Cakes (1963)
I was pretty enraptured by the two previous Thiebaud shows I’d seen, one in London in 2017, one in New York last year. And now he’s at the Courtauld, his first UK museum exhibition.
Both of the commercial galleries showed a broader range of Thiebaud’s work, including some unsurprisingly sunny landscapes from the artist’s native California, and some surprisingly inscrutable portraits. But the Courtauld goes hard on what makes him famous: cakes, pies, the occasional hot dog or cup of coffee, all picked out in luscious, abundant… I almost said edible oil paints.
The star of the show is Cakes, from 1963, pictured above and perhaps the artist’s signature work. (Considering the artist’s focus on americana, it’s quite suitable that its usual home is in Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art.)
It’s a compelling summary of everything that makes him great. The cakes are lushly abundant, bright and glossy. But also teetering into artificiality: the spindles on which they rest seem impossibly slender, and cast no shadow. Squint and each creamy disc could be a pure abstract form. Taken together, they have the heft of Cezanne’s apples and oranges, of Chardin’s silver goblets and vases.
But these are 20th century American still lives. They’re weighty and also lightweight, somehow. Thiebaud must have spent hours thinking about it, seeing before depicting. They’re painted with reverence. The harsh electric lights of the museum pick out the oil paint representation of harsh electric lights, bouncing off glazing and cream. These strokes are circular - like haloes.
Wayne Thiebaud: American Still Life is at The Courtauld Gallery (London). 10 Oct 2025 - 18 Jan 2026