Wayne Thiebaud at Museo Morandi

Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Individual Artists

Wayne Thiebaud at Museo Morandi Details

Wayne Thiebaud (born 1920) is to cakes and pastries what Cézanne is to apples: his renderings of sugary treats are more mouthwatering than the treats themselves, so creamily and lusciously depicted are they. Despite friendships with Johns and Rauschenberg, Thiebaud was never personally affiliated with a particular movement, though his pop-culture subject matter has tended to ally him with Pop. In fact, Thiebaud is simply a painter of Californian still lifes, as this volume underlines in relating him to the Italian still-life painter Giorgio Morandi. Conceived as a parallel journey through the works of the two artists, this volume reveals the close affinities that underlie their work: everyday subject matter simplified to pure formality, neatness of arrangement, repetition and variation and strong brushwork. It includes a piece on Morandi written by Thiebaud that first appeared in The New York Times in 1981, plus an interview by Alessia Masi.

Reviews

I will tell you up front there our many better monographs and exhibition catalogs on the work of Thiebaud, so don't waste you money on this one. This is not only a disappointing publication, but a maddening one both in its content (which is sparse) and its design.The design is the most irritating problem with it. It seems the museum may have turned over production to a Corraini Studio and the copyright is attributed to Maurizio Corraini. He or they would be great designers for a Lamborghini sales brochure, or other luxury items, but it is a mindset that has little sympatico for the presentation of a painter. Several paintings are reproduced across a two-page spread with the trough down the middle of the painting. This is a common practice in magazine design where some graphic impact is intended. However, when reproducing a painting, it is anathema, completely destroying any possibility of viewing and enjoying the image as an essential part of the compostion is lost in the page gutter. (a painting Four Cupcakes becomes Three Cupcakes) This is particularly annoying with Thiebaud's work as the still lifes are often arranged with objects in the middle of the picture field. The text is mostly an interview with the artist by curator Masi. I suspect some would be the same questions I would have asked as a second year art history major. That's fine, and it seems to me Thiebaud answered with tolerance when he didn't agree with the premise of the question, and is truly revealing in more insightful questions. But questions such as do you ever "google" Thiebaud to see what comes are just silly.A serious study of Morandi's influence on Thiebaud would be interesting to read. Thiebaud has often acknowledge his debt to and admiration of Morandi. However, it was not the only nor the most important influence on his artistic development. Museo Morandi missed an opportunity to explore this relationship in a more serious manner.

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