Wayne Thiebaud

Acquavella Galleries, New York
Acquired from the above by A. Alfred Taubman in October 2014

New York, Acquavella Galleries, Wayne Thiebaud, October - November 2014, illustrated in color pl. 28

This work is in very good condition overall. There is light evidence of handling along the edges. The colors are bright, fresh and clean. Framed.
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"What fascinates me is what you can do about the light–creating light–in painting. I get my impetus from that. Not from light, oddly enough, but from the tradition of painting. Particularly in Bonnard, Matisse, German expressionists, Indian miniature painting, Chinese painting where the light is created by the interaction of colors, value, hue, and intensity." 
Wayne Thiebaud (cited in an interview with the Academy of Achievement, May 27, 2011)

All still life painters have confronted the same paradox: how does one represent the world in a naturalistic, yet static manner? Nearly every object to be painted has either the capability of moving on its own or the ability to be moved by others, and even entities that exist outside those two categories are nevertheless subject to the inevitable movement of time. So how can one accurately render an object as still? Life is dynamic, and so, too, are great still life paintings. Despite what its nomenclature would suggest, a truly great still life is not still. It is not simply a representation of items and people absent from motion. A still life, in the hands of a substantial artist, embraces movement; it understands how its subject is not separate from the passage of time, but rather constantly enduring it. Wayne Thiebaud is undoubtedly that kind of substantial artist. His still lifes are never still. The present work, Woman with Four Hats from 2014 is a prime example of the un-still still-life, but in order to fully understand this work, one must know the history of the artist.

Born in Mesa, Arizona in 1920, Thiebaud and his family would move to Southern California one year later, setting the stage for California to become a major influence on his work. Developing an interest for art at an early age, Thiebaud started working in animation at Disney when he was just 16 as an in-betweener, an animator who works on making all the drawings for the transitions that occur inbetween scenes. It was here where Thiebaud honed his craft and developed the ability to infuse his works with time and energy. During World War II, Thiebaud enlisted in the army to make publicity signs, maps, and cartoons and subsequently returned to Los Angeles, where he, like most Angelinos, could not avoid the immense gravitational pull of the movie industry. Employing his skills as a cartoonist, Thiebaud started making movie posters, leading critic John Wilmerding to muse that "some historians have pointed to a connection between [his work making posters] and Thiebaud’s later talents as a draftsman inclined toward wit and irony, though the artist himself has been restrained about such correlations.”

Thiebaud began to paint more seriously not long after WWII and earned his first exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1948. In the 1950s he traded Southern California for Northern and began his teaching career. As an artist living in the Bay Area, Thiebaud developed outside of–but not entirely separate from–the Abstract Expressionist and Pop styles that were consuming the art world in New York City and Los Angeles. Thiebaud's works show clear influence of the two movements; his paintings often portray the banal and commercial subject matter intrinsic to Pop, as well as the expressive brushwork that defined Abstract Expressionist technique.

Both Abstract Expressionist and Pop influences are present in Woman with Four Hats. A woman sits before the viewer at a vanity with four hats placed in front of her, all rendered with visible brushstrokes. The figure is tanned, her dark hair highlighted, make-up immaculately applied and her suggestive, strapless dress subscribes to a modern-day sensibility. However, while the woman's dress is suggestive of our time, the hats appear to be from different points and places in history. As viewers we are naturally drawn to these four seemingly misplaced hats. The questions that arise–from where did they come? Why are they on the table? To whom do they belong?–imbue the objects with an eerie sense of mystery, augmented by the de Chirico-inspired shadows that stretch out behind each object.

While we as viewers are fascinated by the hat enigma, the lone figure could not be more disinterested in the garments on the vanity. As we confront her head on, she looks off beyond our gaze, her eyes are lethargic beneath heavy lids, fixed on a target beyond the compositional plane. This stare is one of contemplation, of a mind that is restless and that holds thoughts completely beyond our comprehension. The knowledge of the woman's mind at work is what imbues the seemingly calm still life with the aforementioned un-stillness. While the figure's mind is constantly moving, so too is the rest of the still life. Thiebaud has not simply captured a moment in time, but rather he has captured the act of time in motion. As the viewer approaches Woman with Four Hats, the central subject is lost in her thoughts; as the viewer retreats, once can hope that the figure has made progress on what trials and tribulations are claiming her attention.