Wayne Thiebaud

Allan Stone Galleries, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in March 1967

This work is in very good condition overall. The surface is bright, fresh and clean, and the canvas is unlined. The turning edges are covered with black tape. Upon very close inspection, there is some extremely fine hairline craquelure in the white pigment and some minor pigment separation in the blue shadows. Also under close inspection there are some scattered pinpoint faint accretions. Under Ultraviolet light inspection, there is no evidence of restoration. Framed.
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.

The charming combination of Wayne Thiebaud's commanding knowledge of color, form and staging with his commitment to evoking a sense of splendor and presence creates a unique rendering of homegrown American imagery that is truly inimitable.  The realism of his oeuvre is accessible and recognizable as still life, landscape or portraiture. Paintings such as Three Boats, however, reveal the complexities of his technique and expertise.

In Three Boats, painted in 1966, Thiebaud assembles bold and colorful forms within an insulated, monochromatic space, divorcing the objects in a simple agreeable progression of basic formal units.  Although the eye may flounder at the absence of a representation of a body of water to support the boats’ hulls, this narrative ambiguity is inconsequential, and even exciting.  What ultimately draws the viewer in is the arresting push and pull that pulsates subtly under the surface of the self-contained 12 by 14 inch space. For Thiebaud, the simplistic and sentimental imagery is a means to an end; boats, like cakes, ties or lollipops are vehicles through which to explore the formal elements of painting.

The three boats sit distinctly on the plane. Defined by thin lines of variegated blues, oranges, greens and yellows that battle amongst one another in a foreshortened space, a great affinity with the work of American realist Edward Hopper is evident.  Thiebaud, like Hopper, is purposeful in his handling of light and shadow and the construction of his compositions.  Thiebaud prioritizes the formal qualities of painting over the subject matter, remarking: "I don't make a lot of distinction between things like landscape or figure painting because to me the problems are inherently the same – lighting, color, structure, and so on." (Exh Cat., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Wayne Thiebaud, 1985, p. 41) The shadows cast from the sides of each boat are weighted and flat, similar to the shadows set against the concrete slab in Edward Hopper's People in Chairs from 1960. Geometric in form, they retain a strong presence on the surface of the canvas and almost become subjects themselves.  As Hopper learned to reduce his compositions to the essential elements, so too has Thiebaud. Their mutual awareness of nostalgic symbols of American life, frozen narrative and theatrical cropping demonstrates their prowess in developing luminous arrangements.

Wayne Thiebaud's Three Boats is at once direct and modest while intimate and expressive. At a time when Abstract Expressionism was confronted with the slick style of Pop art, Thiebaud remained resolute to his methodology of painting.  Allan Stone, a collector and friend of Thiebaud, admired  Thiebaud’s work not only because of its visual appeal but because of the artist’s tender rendering of the paint on the surface: "you sense a love of paint and surface...there's a real joy of painting, a joy of life in his work." (Ibid., p. 37)