Wayne Thiebaud, 2014

Wayne Thiebaud IFPDA Print Fair New York 5th – 9th November 2014

Sims Reed Gallery The Economist Building 30 Bury Street London SW1Y 6AU T +44 (0)20 7930 5111 F +44 (0)20 7930 1555 E gallery@simsreed.com www.gallery.simsreed.com

Foreword We are delighted to present this rare group of prints by Wayne Thiebaud, an artist whom we have long taken an interest in but have never had the opportunity to show in such depth, until now.

Born in Arizona in 1920, Thiebaud’s family moved to California before his first birthday and 94 years later, he continues to live and work there today. He began his career in the late 1930’s as a selftaught commercial artist and worked as an animation assistant for Walt Disney and later, an Art Director for Rexall Drugs.

After returning from WWII, Thiebaud enrolled in arts school in order to pursue a career as a fine artist. His earliest work was heavily influenced by Abstract Expressionism, the predominant style in America at that time. By the early 1960’s Thiebaud became disillusioned with abstraction and made a radical shift back to the investigation of purely formal concerns. He looked for everyday objects that could easily be distilled into simple shapes – triangles, spheres, cubes, and ellipses. The gumball machines, pie slices, lollypops and ice cream cones that now epitomise Thiebaud’s work were chosen initially for their simple shapes and formal qualities.

Pursuing his interest in this new kind of realism, Thiebaud became fascinated by the difficulty of drawing light distorted through glass or volume on a flat surface. His gumball machines and candy dishes along with soft, billowy meringues and frostings on pies and cakes became a means to explore these technical challenges.

We have included a variety of still life subjects in this exhibition, from the earliest black and white ‘Delights’ etchings to the later, delicately coloured ‘Meringue’. These still lifes offer much more than their

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formal qualities – they are nostalgic, delicious, inviting, and distinctly American. However, it is so easy to be drawn into the subjects themselves that we neglect to recognise the complicated, formal concerns underlying them. He draws his subjects from memory rather then observation, presenting us with an archetypal example of what we might imagine versus a perfectly observed version. For Thiebaud, these sumptuous images of cakes, candies, and toys present technical accomplishment and charming character in equal measure.

Looking at the dramatic Californian landscape provided Thiebaud with a different set of artistic challenges. Always fascinated by his sense of place, he decided to draw the soaring hills of San Francisco.

Initially working in situ, he soon found that drawing this dramatic topography from his imagination was surprisingly more effective. We have included three of his most colourful and compelling landscape prints, each with the exaggerated height and flattened perspective that typify the experience of being in northern California.

Thiebaud is an artist with the rare ability to perfectly combine brilliant draftsmanship and dazzling colour in his works. He has been a consistent and committed printmaker throughout his career.

Beautifully drawn and perfectly coloured, these charming, delightful prints can only be described as pure joy. – Lyndsey Ingram

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Country City Etching and aquatint printed in colours, 1988.

Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 60.

Printed on Somerset Satin paper by Crown Point Press, San Francisco.

Published by Crown Point Press, San Francisco with their blindstamp.

77.5 x 101.6 cm (30.5 x 40 inches)

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Glassed Candy Etching, 1965.

Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 25.

Published by Parasol Press, New York.

38 x 27.5 cm (15 x 10.8 inches)

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Toy Counter From Seven Still-Lifes and a Rabbit.

Screenprint in colours, 1970 -1.

Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 50.

Printed on Arches paper.

Published by Parasol Press, New York.

57.1 x 76.5 cm (22.5 x 30.1 inches)

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Cones Etching, 1964.

Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 25.

37.6 x 27.5 cm (14.8 x 10.8 inches)

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Eleven Desserts Hardground etching and drypoint, 1966.

Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 10.

Published by the artist.

26 x 27.9 cm (10.2 x 11 inches)

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Meringue Drypoint and aquatint printed in colours, 1995.

Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 50.

Printed on Wove paper by Daria Sywulak, San Francisco.

Published by Crown Point Press, San Francisco.

94 x 66 cm (37 x 26 inches)

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Suckers From Delights Aquatint, 1964.

Signed in pencil and inscribed ‘AP’.

An artist’s proof aside from the edition of 100.

Printed on Rives BFK paper by Kathan Brown at Crown Point Press, San Francisco.

Published by Crown Point Press, San Francisco.

32.5 x 27.5 cm (12.8 x 10.8 inches)

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Dark Cake Woodcut printed in colours, 1987.

Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 200.

Printed on Tosa Kozo paper by Tadashi Toda at Shi-un-do Print Shop, Kyoto.

Published by Crown Point Press, San Francisco, with their blindstamp.

51.4 x 56.5 cm (20.2 x 22.2 inches)

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Palms Etching, 1965.

Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 25.

Printed on Rives BFK paper.

Published by Parasol Press, New York.

29.8 x 27.6 cm (11.7 x 10.9 inches)

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Snack Counter Hardground etching and drypoint, 1966.

Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 10.

Published by the artist.

26 x 27.9 cm (10.2 x 11 inches)

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Park Place Etching and aquatint printed in colours, 1995.

Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 50.

Printed by Crown Point Press, San Francisco.

Published by Crown Point Press, San Francisco with their blindstamp.

100.3 x 75.5 cm (39.5 x 29.7 inches)

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Dispensers From Delights.

Hardground etching, 1964.

Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 100.

Printed on Rives BFK paper by Kathan Brown at Crown Point Press, San Francisco.

Published by Crown Point Press, San Francisco.

32.8 x 27.4 cm (12.9 x 10.8 inches)

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Gum Machine From Delights Hard ground etching, 1964.

Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 100.

Printed on Rives BFK paper by Kathan Brown at Crown Point Press, San Francisco.

Published by Crown Point Press, San Francisco.

32.8 x 27.4 cm (12.9 x 10.8 inches)

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Candy Apples Woodcut printed in colours, 1987.

Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 200.

Printed on Tosa Kozo paper by Tadashi Toda at Shi-un-do Print Shop, Kyoto.

Published by Crown Point Press, San Francisco with their blindstamp.

59.3 x 61.3 cm (23.3 x 24.1 inches)

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Sucker Tree, State II Woodcut, 1964/2008.

Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 10.

Published by the artist.

35.2 x 33.2 cm (13.9 x 13.1 inches)

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Slice of Pie Etching, 1962.

Signed in pencil and inscribed ‘E.A.’ An artist’s proof aside from the edition of 60.

Published by Parasol Press, New York.

14.7 x 10.6 cm (5.8 x 4.2 inches)

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Hill Street Woodcut printed in colours, 1987.

Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 200.

Printed by Tadashi Toda, Kyoto.

Published by Crown Point Press, San Francisco.

94 x 61 cm (37 x 24 inches)

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Delicatessen From Delights Aquatint, 1964.

Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 100.

Printed on Rives BFK paper by Kathan Brown at Crown Point Press, San Francisco.

Published by Crown Point Press, San Francisco.

32.8 x 27.4 cm (12.9 x 10.8 inches)

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Banana Splits From Delights Hardground etching, 1964.

Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 100.

Printed on Rives BFK paper by Kathan Brown at Crown Point Press, San Francisco.

Published by Crown Point Press, San Francisco.

32.8 x 27.4 cm (12.9 x 10.8 inches)

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Gumball Machine From Seven Still Lifes and a Silver Landscape portfolio Linocut printed in colours, 1971.

Stamped in ink, verso: ‘Imprimerie Arnéra Archives/ Non Signé’.

An artist’s proof aside from the edition of 50.

Printed on Arches paper.

Published by Parasol Press, New York.

76.5 x 56.5 cm (30.1 x 22.2 in)

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Published by Sims Reed Gallery and Galerie Maximillian, 2014. Š All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this catalogue may be reproduced in whole or in part, without the permission from the publisher.

Designed by Lucy Harbut.

Printed by Dayfold.

Sims Reed Gallery The Economist Building 30 Bury Street London SW1Y 6AU T +44 (0)20 7930 5111 F +44 (0)20 7930 1555 E gallery@simsreed.com www.gallery.simsreed.com