Lot 28
  • 28

Wayne Thiebaud

Estimate
300,000 - 400,000 USD
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Description

  • Wayne Thiebaud
  • Down Penn. St.
  • signed and dated 1977 on the reverse; titled and inscribed Painted at Pennsylvania Mariposo on Portero Hill 1977 on the stretcher
  • oil on canvas
  • 10 x 8 1/8 in. 25.1 x 20.8 cm.

Provenance

Acquired directly from the artist

Condition

This painting is in very good condition. The surface is slightly soiled overall from airborne dirt and dust. The canvas is mounted on a keyed stretcher, and has an irregular edge in the upper right corner, related to the irregular edge of the wood stretcher beneath it. Under ultraviolet light, there are no apparent restorations. The canvas is framed in a white painted wood frame with a small float.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

The improbable geometry of Wayne Thiebaud's San Francisco streetscapes, with their steep hills and dramatic horizons, are the perfect forum for exaggerating spatial dynamics and investigating the complexities of form and composition.  Since Thiebaud's move there in 1972, he had been fascinated by the dichotomy of the energy of city life co-existing in a scene of extreme foreshortening and shifting perspectives. In streetscapes such as Down Penn St., Thiebaud explored the opposing tensions between modern abstraction and classic representation. As he observed, ``There is an element of oriental art in them, that kind of flattening out of planes – and a lot of playing around. ...San Francisco is a fantasy city. It's easy to make it into a pretend city, a kind of fairy tale. There's an almost Australian sense of quick riches, of hills and precipitousness,'' (Exh. Cat., San Francisco, Fine Arts Museum, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Wayne Thiebaud: a Retrospective, 2000, p. 58).

Thiebaud's reference to `fantasy' is telling since his street scenes are not mere acts of observation rendered in attractive and aesthetic form. As visually accessible and easily recognizable as Down Penn St. and other streetscapes are to us, they are foremost a study of form and composition for Thiebaud. He exercises any number of manipulations in the arrangements of elements, from color to light to paint texture, to produce paintings that are first and foremost artistic constructions. Perspective, which is so central to the history of Western art, is a central motif of this series whether in vertiginous avenues populated by skyscrapers or the more open scenes of residential areas such as Down Penn St.: the verticality is Thiebaud's thesis and delight in these paintings.