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拍品专文
The bright bow ties that Wayne Thiebaud arranges into this rhythmic composition ably demonstrate the magical combination of realism and abstraction that typifies his work. Showcasing the aesthetic vigor that Thiebaud could derive from even the most prosaic object, Tied Ties exhibits the carefully structured objects and brightly hued still-lifes that helped establish the artist as one of the foremost chroniclers of suburban life. With his instinctive ability to recognize the abstract beauty of the striated polychrome forms of the neckties, Thiebaud's composition exemplifies the process he praised, whereby a painter "can enliven a construct of paint by doing any number of manipulations and additions to what he sees both abstract and real simultaneously" (M. Strand, ed., Art of the Real: Nine American Figurative Painters, New York, 1983, 192).
Ties were one of Thiebaud's favored motifs in his still life paintings, and he explored variations on the subject, such as a serpentine pile of ties and a luscious painting of them stacked up in layers like a wedding cake. Laying out the neckties in diagonals creates a cascade of vivid color, while their fabric bows recall Thiebaud's celebrated canvases of cakes and other sweets. Yet the tie display is also an emblem of consumer culture, as such dazzling displays are calculated to spark desire in the viewer. Set against a monochrome background, the composition recalls Thiebaud's experience in advertising in the 1940s. Thiebaud understood the visual impact of commercial artists' treatment of their subjects, such as using blank backgrounds to isolate the products and quick, decisive lines to delineate them. While others might dismiss such works for their easy commercial appeal, because Thiebaud started out as a graphic artist, he acknowledges their significance: "I had too much respect for commercial artists. I appreciated how skilled they really are" (W. Thiebaud, quoted in A Paintings Retrospective, exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2000, p. 19).
Tied Ties is an primary example of Thiebaud's work in which he revisits his favored paintings, produces a lithograph, and then hand-colors them with pastels to create a unique work--a process he has called "vision and revision." Thiebaud says this process enables him to forestall the "absolute resolution" of a work, which "from time to time flirts an invitation my way," beckoning, "change me, rework me, overhaul my parts, give me a facelift" (W. Thiebaud, quoted in C. Morain, "Theibaud's Rare Gift," https://www.ucdavis.edu/spotlight/1008/thiebauds_rare_gift.html). Works of this type have become extremely important to Thiebaud, and he has donated a number of examples to art institutions in his native California. They provide him an avenue through which to explore his love of color and form, while enabling him to continue his lifelong relationship with the ubiquitous objects of our lived experience.
Ties were one of Thiebaud's favored motifs in his still life paintings, and he explored variations on the subject, such as a serpentine pile of ties and a luscious painting of them stacked up in layers like a wedding cake. Laying out the neckties in diagonals creates a cascade of vivid color, while their fabric bows recall Thiebaud's celebrated canvases of cakes and other sweets. Yet the tie display is also an emblem of consumer culture, as such dazzling displays are calculated to spark desire in the viewer. Set against a monochrome background, the composition recalls Thiebaud's experience in advertising in the 1940s. Thiebaud understood the visual impact of commercial artists' treatment of their subjects, such as using blank backgrounds to isolate the products and quick, decisive lines to delineate them. While others might dismiss such works for their easy commercial appeal, because Thiebaud started out as a graphic artist, he acknowledges their significance: "I had too much respect for commercial artists. I appreciated how skilled they really are" (W. Thiebaud, quoted in A Paintings Retrospective, exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2000, p. 19).
Tied Ties is an primary example of Thiebaud's work in which he revisits his favored paintings, produces a lithograph, and then hand-colors them with pastels to create a unique work--a process he has called "vision and revision." Thiebaud says this process enables him to forestall the "absolute resolution" of a work, which "from time to time flirts an invitation my way," beckoning, "change me, rework me, overhaul my parts, give me a facelift" (W. Thiebaud, quoted in C. Morain, "Theibaud's Rare Gift," https://www.ucdavis.edu/spotlight/1008/thiebauds_rare_gift.html). Works of this type have become extremely important to Thiebaud, and he has donated a number of examples to art institutions in his native California. They provide him an avenue through which to explore his love of color and form, while enabling him to continue his lifelong relationship with the ubiquitous objects of our lived experience.