Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021), Boston Cremes, 1962. Oil on canvas, Crocker Art Museum © Waynw Thiebaud

I recently enjoyed a small exhibition of the work of Wayne Thiebaud. (The Courtauld Gallery, London until 18 January)

'Discipline is not a restriction, but an aid to freedom.'
Wayne Thiebaud

Thiebaud is celebrated for his colourful still lifes of everyday American items – cereal packets, yo-yos, gumball and pinball machines; baloney sausages, hot dogs, pies, cakes and ice creams. His art, created in the post-war economic boom, captures both the confidence and optimism of the era, and the creeping anxiety that accompanied it. He was dubbed ‘the laureate of lunch counters and diners.’

‘The objects are… like small landscapes, buildings or characters in a play with costumes.’

Born in 1920 in Mesa, Arizona, Thiebaud lived and worked in Sacramento, California. His early career was spent as an illustrator and commercial art director. He apprenticed at Walt Disney Studios, drawing ‘in-betweens’ of Goofy, Pinocchio, and Jiminy Cricket, and during World War 2 he served as an artist in the First Motion Picture Unit of the US Army Air Forces. After the conflict, he studied at San Jose and Sacramento State Colleges, and thereafter devoted himself to painting and teaching art.

Having spent time among New York’s avant garde art set in 1956–7, Thiebaud began painting the food displayed in bakeries, delicatessens and diners – stripped back, minimal images, reflecting Cezanne’s belief that everything in nature can be reduced to three fundamental shapes: the sphere, cone and cylinder.

‘From when I worked in restaurants, I can remember seeing rows of pies, or a tin of pie with one piece out of it. Those little verdute [views], in fragmented circumstances, were always poetic to me.’

Painted with heavy pigment and exaggerated colours, Thiebaud’s pictures offer tantalising access to candy counters; to frosted cakes and custards; to toffee apples and Boston cremes. There are tempting pies and pastries, seductive lollipops and slabs of nougat. Three ice cream cones – strawberry, chocolate, vanilla – sit in their stand, waiting to be devoured.

‘The ice cream cone, for me, represents a kind of joy, a sort of temporariness… That very bright spirit that it once had, that kind of colour, light, liveliness, soon will be gone.’

Carefully arranged, set against neutral backgrounds and artificially illuminated, such sweet delights cast crisp, deep shadows. They seem organised in perfect patterns. But then we notice the small changes of colour and light, the subtle inconsistencies of angles.

‘At first glance, the pies look mechanical and have a sameness. At least, most people will think they do until they study them closely.’

These poignant still lifes suggest the beauty of the everyday, a nostalgia perhaps for childhood simplicity. We may find them a little melancholy. The cakes are processed and shaped, their colouring a little synthetic - the products of assembly lines and mass production; of escalating consumerism. As well as eliciting longing, they also prompt us to reflect on the fleeting fulfilment that ultimately awaits. The reward rarely matches the promise. Desire walks hand-in-hand with disappointment.

Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021), Cakes, 1963. Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington © Waynw Thiebaud

'If we don't have a sense of humor, we lack a sense of perspective.’

In creating his art, Thiebaud was certainly drawing on his experience as a commercial illustrator. There is a clarity, focus and directness about his work. He encourages those of us employed in creative businesses to recognise the visual power of everyday items; to celebrate their inherent beauty and strangeness; to make the common uncommon.

‘Common objects become strangely uncommon when removed from their context and ordinary ways of being seen.’

'Oh to live on Sugar Mountain,
With the barkers and the colored balloons.
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain,
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.
It's so noisy at the fair,
But all your friends are there,
And the candy floss you had,
And your mother and your dad.
There's a girl just down the aisle,
Oh to turn and see her smile.
You can hear the words she wrote,
As you read the hidden note.
Oh to live on Sugar Mountain,
With the barkers and the colored balloons.
You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain,
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.’

Neil Young, ‘Sugar Mountain'

No. 544