Viewing Wayne Thiebaud: American Still Life

The critically acclaimed Wayne Thiebaud exhibition at the Courtauld closes this week, so hotfoot it to Somerset House to catch the first major UK museum show devoted to this seminal American artist (1920–2021), which brings together an extraordinary selection of his vibrant still lifes from the late 1950s and 1960s, a period when he reinvented traditional genres by turning everyday consumer objects into compelling works of art.

Thiebaud is celebrated for his lushly painted delicious depictions of cakes, ice creams, deli counters, gum-ball machines and even pinball machines—subjects drawn from the visual language of post-war America. With thick impasto and radiant colour, he transforms seemingly mundane fare into images that are at once enticing and profound, inviting viewers to consider the significance of ordinary things. It might have you abandoning your new years’ healthy eating resolutions.

The exhibition features loans from major US institutions such as the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, alongside works from the Wayne Thiebaud Foundation. Complementing the main display, Wayne Thiebaud: Delights in the Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Drawings Gallery showcases a portfolio of 17 etchings from 1964, highlighting the artist’s printmaking alongside his paintings. The show also places Thiebaud’s work in dialogue with European masterpieces in the Courtauld’s own collection, notably exploring connections with Édouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère — a still-life precursor that influenced Thiebaud’s own artistic vision. A feast for the eyes.