Wayne Thiebaud

Allan Stone Gallery, New York
Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above)
By descent to the present owner from the above

New York, Allan Stone Gallery, Wayne Thiebaud: Recent Paintings, April - May 1962
Poughkeepsie, Vassar College, Vassar Art Gallery, Modern Art from the Friends' Collections, May - June 1985

Deborah A. Goldberg, "Vassar Art Gallery Celebrates 10th Anniversary," The Miscellany News, May 3, 1985, p. 6, illustrated

This work is in fair condition overall. The colors are bright, fresh and clean. There is very light evidence of handling along the edges. The areas of impasto are all secure. There are networks of hairline craquelure in the lower half of the canvas and a few spots of minor scattered hairline craquelure, visible upon close inspection. Under Ultraviolet light inspection, the area of craquelure between the first two jelly rolls, an area at the lower left corner and an area beneath the third jelly roll all fluoresce darkly and appear to have benefitted from restoration. On the verso of the canvas, the area corresponding to craquelure and restoration between the first two jelly rolls has been wax lined. 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.

Prior to the global phenomenon of Pop art, and at a time when Abstract Expressionism reigned supreme in New York, Wayne Thiebaud emerged as a pioneering artist who captured the emotion and power of prevailing aesthetics whilst concurrently anticipating the commercial mass-produced imagery that would saturate artistic discourse in the subsequent decades. There are perhaps few works that represent this catalytic moment in the history of art as aptly as Three Jelly Rolls, abounding in both swirling abstract patterns and objective realism, the present work at once concludes and portends two of the most significant artistic movements of the 20^th Century. More significant still perhaps, the present work featured in Thiebaud’s inaugural show at Allan Stone Gallery in New York in 1962, an exhibition that would cement a career-long relationship between gallerist and artist, as well as establish a precedent of critical acclaim for the Thiebaud that would follow him for the rest of his professional life.

In tracing Thiebaud’s own history the motivations behind his dichotomic aesthetic become clear. As a young man he took a job preparing food in Long Beach where he became absorbed by the appearance of the vibrant yet commonplace objects and products that surrounded him – images that would stay with him and form the basis of the groundbreaking works he produced in the early 1960s, such as the present lot, that are suffused with idealized nostalgia and guileless allure.

During his formative years Thiebaud also worked as an apprentice at Walt Disney Studios and went on to work professionally as a cartoonist and designer. Within these commercially controlled environments, Thiebaud grew attached to the conformity, repetition and compositional obscurity of popular images and advertisements, and likewise to the simultaneity, abundance and ubiquity of mass-produced goods that resonate with typically American ideals. The present work portrays an immaculate row of sweets in which the individual components establish an absorbing relationship between the uniformity and subtle difference that arise between them. Three Jelly Rolls therefore constitutes a thoroughly well resolved reflection of what was at one point a revolutionary progression of abundance and democracy in American production. As John Coplans aptly notes, “By using with gentle irony and humor a banal imagery that reflects the mechanistic details of the modern environment, Thiebaud affirms rather than denies the infinite riches to be gained from the ordinary experience (‘Introduction,’ in: Exh. Cat., Pasadena Art Museum (and travelling), Wayne Thiebaud, February – October 1968, p. 16).

That Three Jelly Rolls works on both abstract and objective levels is however Thiebaud’s real masterstroke. The undulating painterly surface of his works skillfully navigates between reality and illusion so that his images have as much to do with the practices of Robert Ryman or Jasper Johns as they do with Andy Warhol’s or even Edward Hopper’s. The buttery surface of paint in the present work recalls the actual sugary surface of the depicted sweets making them appear so unquestionably real that their integrity can never be substantively questioned. Yet there are exquisite little glimmers of emerald greens and ruby reds that shine through the creamy substance of the rolls and offer a definitive cantilever to the work, endowing it with an almost dreamlike charm and elegance. Likewise, the expansive white ground isolates the central forms and obliterates any context they might otherwise have, allowing them to float like abstract voids in a sea of rippling sensation.

Skillfully composed and realized without a hint of restraint, these artistically powerful works are nevertheless implicitly democratic. By depicting ordinary foodstuffs they celebrate the commonplace, the little joys in life that we have all enjoyed at one point or another. They are honest, bold and egalitarian. With a pronounced aesthetic vocabulary Thiebaud creates arresting paintings that can readily be consumed by the masses, he is the people’s painter, the artist’s artist, and the “poet laureate of the coffee break” (Max Kolzoff quoted in: ibid., p.8).