Posted inArt

Why Does Wayne Thiebaud Love Goop So Much?

SAN FRANCISCO — Wayne Thiebaud, whose exhibition Memory Mountains recently closed at the Paul Thiebaud Gallery in San Francisco, turns 94 this year. Consisting of nearly fifty paintings and drawings of mountains and mesas done between 1962 and 2013, this survey exhibition reveals another side of a painter best known for his impasto paintings of frosting-slathered cakes, thickly crusted pies and sticky pastries.

Posted inArt

Wayne Thiebaud and the Limits of Gluttony

I was lucky enough to see Wayne Thiebaud: 70 Years of Painting at the San Jose Museum of Art (February 27–July 4, 2010) and write about it for The Brooklyn Rail (July–August 2010). As with that exhibition, many of the works now on view at the Aquavella Galleries’ posh, mirrored townhouse on Manhattan’s 79th Street (the artist’s first show there), a few blocks north of the Whitney Museum of American Art, came from the Thiebaud Family Collection, the artist’s studio, museums and private collections. Evidently, only a handful of the more than eighty works are for sale. On the day that I went to the gallery a man came in and asked the woman at the front desk for a price list because his wife had told him to “buy her something for Christmas.” This might bother some people, but some of those same people probably don’t see any problem with how much money reality stars spend on their underwear.

Posted inOpinion

Art World Halloween Costumes

We at Hyperallergic know it’s close to Halloween because of all the articles giving us last minute costume ideas! Now, a slutty viking or a faux-Gaga meat dress might be fine if you’re just going to some random Halloween party with a bunch of normal people. But what if you’re going to that special Halloween benefit at MoMA? Or trick or treating up and down Chelsea? Here are a few costume ideas that will get you street cred in the art world.