No artist is more American in terms of subject matter and sensibility than Wayne Thiebaud, who painted food and features of postwar culture in still lifes that pair the Pop art’s wide-eyed reverie with signs of high-minded refinement. Before he starting showing his work in galleries in the 1960s, Thiebaud worked as an illustrator and designer, including stints involving animation for Walt Disney Studios and graphic design for the military during World War II. After that, he commenced a singular career as an artist in the Bay Area who made all of America his home before he died in 2021 at the age of 101. (See an ARTnews primer on Thiebaud for an overview of life and work.)
Starting October 10, Thiebaud will be the subject of what’s being touted as his first UK museum exhibition: a survey at the Courtauld Gallery in London titled “Wayne Thiebaud: American Still Life.” The show includes loans from private collections and institutions including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (which is lending his 1963 painting Cakes, pictured above), the Whitney Museum, the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, and more. The exhibition will be accompanied a related show of prints from 1965 titled “Wayne Thiebaud: Delights.”
Below, see some highlights from the Courtauld show, which will run through January 18, 2026.
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Image Credit: ©Wayne Thiebaud/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2025/Photo: Randy Dodson, Courtesy Fine Art Museums of San Francisco Wayne Thiebaud, Three Machines, 1963.
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Image Credit: ©Wayne Thiebaud/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2025/Courtesy Wayne Thiebaud Foundation Wayne Thiebaud, Pie Rows, 1961.
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Image Credit: ©Wayne Thiebaud/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2025/Photo: M. Lee Fatherree/Courtesy Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, University of California, Davis Wayne Thiebaud, Cup of Coffee, 1961.
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Image Credit: ©Wayne Thiebaud/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2025/Courtesy Acquavella Galleries Wayne Thiebaud, Four Pinball Machines, 1962.
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Image Credit: ©Wayne Thiebaud/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2025/Photo John Janca Wayne Thiebaud, Five Hot Dogs, 1961.
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Image Credit: ©Wayne Thiebaud/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2025/Photo Julia Featheringill Wayne Thiebaud, Delicatessen Counter, 1963.
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Image Credit: ©Wayne Thiebaud/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2025/Courtesy San Diego Museum of Art Wayne Thiebaud, Caged Pie, 1962.
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Image Credit: ©Wayne Thiebaud/VAGA at ARS, NY and DACS, London 2025 Wayne Thiebaud, Candy Counter, 1969.
