Wayne Thiebaud's Artistic Legacy and Personal Reflections from 2016 Interview

Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021) remained an active painter well into his nineties and played tennis three times a week. In a 2016 feature for ArtReview, he reminisced about his connections with Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline during a trip to New York in 1956. His studio, located near the California State Capitol, was filled with student art and artifacts from Peru and Mexico. The 1969 artwork Peking Ducks reflects the influence of de Kooning and Chaim Soutine. Thiebaud transformed his experiences in the restaurant industry into abstract representations of pies and cakes. His 1962 piece Four Pinball Machines blends childhood memories with New York’s artistic style. Despite the passing of his wife Betty Jean a day before an interview, Thiebaud continued to create.