“Each era produces its own still lifes…My interest in painting is traditional and modest in its aim. I hope that it may allow us to see ourselves looking at ourselves.”
P ortraying a classic American still life of a quintessential staple of American menswear, Bow Tie Tree is Wayne Thiebaud’s contemporary interpretation of a classic fashion item. A stunning and exquisitely rendered example of Thiebaud's celebrated practice in which he elevates images imbued with American nostalgia, transforming the quotidian into the iconic with lush layered impasto and delicate pastels. Over the course of his illustrious seven-decade career, Thiebaud used depictions of everyday items, food, landscapes and more, as a metaphor for American prosperity, consumerism and cultural identity. In the present work, the artist turns his attention towards the bow tie, a classic men’s accessory that has long been an idiosyncratic staple of American fashion. For many viewers, the artist’s depiction of a bow tie has strong associations with the past, due to the garment’s stereotypical popularity among elders, especially close relatives such as fathers and grandfathers, as well as educators including teachers and professors. The resulting composition elicits a comforting sense of familiarity that recalls the warmth and ease of the past.
“Common objects become strangely uncommon when removed from their context and ordinary ways of being seen.”
In a fascinating act of self-awareness Thiebaud draws an interesting parallel between the object and the image pictured within it. Much like the painting itself, bow ties are among the few garments that are purely decorative, fitting into the artist’s extensive oeuvre of works depicting decadent and beautiful objects of desire, drawing parallels between the luxurious silk ties and his extensive depictions of lavish cakes and pastries. The present work was acquired by important corporate collection since 1988, where it has remained ever since. Contrasting a piece of popular formal wear with the inherent playfulness of the elaborate patterns, the painting aptly encapsulates the work hard, play hard ethos of the 1980s, when it was first acquired.
In the present work Thiebaud depicts a tightly cropped metal stand placed on a table, adorned by six intricately patterned bow ties. Demonstrating his expert manipulation of color and breathtaking attention to detail, the artist paints the extravagant silk ties in carefully matched tones of yellow, green, red and blue in a range of patterns including polka-dots, stripes and paisley. Illuminated in warm light, the bow ties cast a short shadow against a soft beige background. The composition and framing recalls Thiebaud’s experience in advertising in the 1940s, which gave him a unique understanding of framing his subjects and isolating them against a black background, lending them a distinctly commercial appeal to heighten the sense of desire and longing.
Thiebaud’s attention to composition and arrangement in the present work closely resembles the subtlety and stillness of the still lifes of his great inspiration, Giorgio Morandi, setting him apart from the logos and branding in the works of his contemporaries in the 1960s. In contrast, the present work is noticeably absent of such symbolism. Instead Thiebaud focuses on form and the soft geometric foundations of Morandi. Even though this is a representational artwork, like Morandi, Thiebaud constructs the composition using geometric elements as a basis, particularly in the delineation of the counter and the wall, and the triangle shapes that make up the bow ties.
© 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome
Thiebaud carefully outlines and delineates his forms to achieve a halo like effect that “give to his pictures not just a sense of the shiver of light in a particular place but also the sense that the scene has the interior life and unnatural emphases of something recalled from memory” (Adam Gopnik, "The Art World: Window Gazing," New Yorker, April 29, 1991, p. 79). The stacked bow ties are not unlike his paintings of confections, often depicted balancing precipitously on delicate platters.
In the early 1960’s, Thiebaud began painting the works for which he is best known, depicting quintessentially American everyday objects. Bow Tie Tree belongs to a series of paintings based on ties that he created for two solo exhibitions in 1969 at the Crocker Art Museum in the artist’s hometown of Sacramento and at Allan Stone Gallery in New York. Preparatory drawings from this period, such as the pastel on paper Bow Tie Tree, 1968, reveal Thiebaud’s deep interest in ties, which would eventually belong to some of his most important works. For example, Row of Ties, which was also painted in 1969, but depicts neckties, is in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
© Wayne Thiebaud / Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York
Bow Tie Tree is a highly characteristic example of Thiebaud’s work that taps into the collective memory of American life. It captures the hallmarks of his distinctive visual language and archetypal subject matter with signature characteristics including thick, lush painting style, structured brushwork and bold colors.
