Wayne Thiebaud

Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco
Private Collection, U.S.A.
Christie's, New York, November 14, 2007, lot 207
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale

This work is in very good condition overall. The surface is bright, fresh and clean. There is evidence of light handling to the edges of the panel and some faint horizontal craquelure along the left edge. There is a spot of faint, pinpoint spot accretions on the building on the left. Under Ultraviolet light inspection, there is no evidence of restoration. Framed. *Please note the auction begins at 9:30 am on November 14th.*
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.

Since Wayne Thiebaud’s move to San Francisco in 1972, his streetscapes have captured the dichotomy between the energy of city life and the dramatic horizons and cascading hills of the surrounding landscape. The complexities and verticality of the San Francisco cityscape are the perfect forum for Thiebaud‘s ambitious exploration of exaggerated spatial dynamics. As a departure from the still lifes that gained him popularity and acclaim in the early 1960s, his landscapes explore the opposing tensions between classical representation and modern abstraction.

Park Place Study serves as an intimate and detailed preparation for Park Place, which Thiebaud completed in the following year. Throughout this study’s brilliant and delicate surface are fine traces of graphite seemingly carved into the oil paint while the panel was still drying on the artist’s easel. These contemplative marks are the visual history of a prolonged exploration of formal issues and numerous manipulations of the serenely poised cityscape. Here Thiebaud displays his own unique brand of realism, combining careful observation with endless imagination. Delicate lines highlighted by saturated colors emphasize the interlocking geometry of a composition that plays with the boundaries of abstraction. As noted by Thiebaud, artists “can enliven a construct of paint by doing any number of manipulations and additions to what he sees both abstract and real simultaneously," (Mark Strand, ed., Art of the Real: Nine American Figurative Painters, New York, 1983, p. 192).

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 and lofty hillsides. Inspired by Chinese and Japanese painting and their influence on the spatial innovations of Paul Cézanne and other modernist painters, Thiebaud's Park Place Study demonstrates a compression of expansive space into a foreshortened perspective. 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” (Exh. Cat., San Francisco, Fine Arts Museum, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Wayne Thiebaud: a Retrospective, 2000, p. 58). Though Thiebaud is working with tools of spatial abstraction, he never surrenders entirely to the flatness of the non-objective. He exercises any number of manipulations to produce paintings that are first and foremost artistic constructions and intense contemplative studies of form and composition.