Each era produces its own still life.
E xecuted in 1957, Candy Counter is an early example of one of Wayne Thiebaud’s most celebrated subjects of delectable confectionery delights. A brightly lit store counter overflows with desserts and cakes, the sweets are punctuated by flicks of vibrant oranges, pinks and yellows, while swatches of rich green and burgundy articulate the interior of the store, the incredible layering and creamy application of pigment creates a swirling and tantalizing effect. An utter jewel in the history of Thiebaud’s oeuvre, Candy Counter displays a luscious painterly quality and powerful sense of nostalgia, propelling Thiebaud’s legacy as one of the great American master painters with an enduring cultural appeal.
Bearing impressive provenance, Candy Counter has remained in the same collection for over sixty years. Thiebaud was a close personal friend of Gregory Kondos, an artist himself who was the model for Thiebaud’s, Standing Man from 1964. The close relationship between artist and connoisseur was developed over decades, and the two traded their work, standing as subject for each other’s work over the course of their lives. Kondos' ownership of this delectable work illustrates its incredible importance as a prized and cherished example by Thiebaud who bestowed it to a dear friend.
Candy Counter evidences Thiebaud’s signature style, by which the artist imbues quotidian objects and images with startling significance, similar to the technique of European masters. Elevating the very genre of still life painting, Thiebaud carefully draws from his most important memories, the mundane surroundings falling away to leave only the essential image behind. Consistent with Thiebaud’s most iconic examples, Candy Counter, is directly informed by the artist’s previous professional experience as a commercial illustrator, demonstrated by the wholly ingenious visual ordering and arrangement of the confections in the present work. Intertwined with comforting practices of consumption and enjoyment, Candy Counter is pivotal to Thiebaud’s celebrated practice of elevating gems of American nostalgia.
"Most of the objects are fragments of actual experience. For instance, I would really think of the bakery counter, of the way the counter was lit, where the pies were placed, but I wanted just a piece of the experience…Those little vedute in fragmented circumstances were always poetic to me.”
