.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
'[The] big difference in America as compared to Europe is that the food here is the same wherever you go. […] The decoration in Europe, particularly of cakes, seems more delicate. Here they are full of big globs of material such as chocolate or cream. […] Americans always put on much more frosting, etc., than is needed'
(W. Thiebaud quoted in J. Coplans, Wayne Thiebaud, Pasadena Art Museum, 1968, pp. 23-24).
With Millefeuilles, 1971, Wayne Thiebaud depicts a French pastry with a touch of Americana. Possessing an interest in the everyday, Thiebaud takes commonplace objects and uplifts them to an uncanny plane through his manipulation of the medium. He takes a formal approach to colour, light and composition as his intention is to get the painting to a point of resolution. His remarkable handling of line and form demonstrates his mastery over this medium while retaining a charming childlike quality. The result is a mouth-watering effect that asks to be consumed.
Thiebaud's iconic studies of common American pastries draw upon both the traditional and the contemporary. The cylindrical cakes owed more to such masters of the still life as the 18th-century French painter Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, or the 20th-century Italian Giorgio Morandi, than to the art trends of his time. As Thiebaud said: ‘Common objects become strangely uncommon when removed from their context.’ (G. Cooper, Wayne Thiebaud: Survey of Painting 1950-1972. Long Beach: California State University. 1972. n.p.) Instead of relying on an overtly sensational image in order to create an emotion, Thiebaud prefers to use a familiar one, creating an enchanting sense of nostalgia as one recalls the simple pleasure of a child entering a patisserie.
In Millefeuilles, the texture of the cream vacillates between light areas, heavy outlines and velvety applications of paint, which build up to create the effect of a delicious pastry. Nonetheless, the rich ink black background on which Thiebaud paints the lush millefeuilles could be considered the real subject of this work. Though at first sight the watercolour is reminiscent of Pop Art, there is also an abstract nature to the work as Thiebaud meditates on the beauty of form and shape for its own sake. As Adam Gopnik has written, 'His method…has the effect not of eliminating the Pop resonance of his subjects but of slowing down and chastening the associations they evoke, so that a host of ambivalent feelings—nostalgic and satiric and elegiac—can come back later, calmed down and contemplative: enlightened.' (A. Gopnik, ‘The Art World: Window Gazing’, in New Yorker, April 29. 1991, p. 80).
(W. Thiebaud quoted in J. Coplans, Wayne Thiebaud, Pasadena Art Museum, 1968, pp. 23-24).
With Millefeuilles, 1971, Wayne Thiebaud depicts a French pastry with a touch of Americana. Possessing an interest in the everyday, Thiebaud takes commonplace objects and uplifts them to an uncanny plane through his manipulation of the medium. He takes a formal approach to colour, light and composition as his intention is to get the painting to a point of resolution. His remarkable handling of line and form demonstrates his mastery over this medium while retaining a charming childlike quality. The result is a mouth-watering effect that asks to be consumed.
Thiebaud's iconic studies of common American pastries draw upon both the traditional and the contemporary. The cylindrical cakes owed more to such masters of the still life as the 18th-century French painter Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, or the 20th-century Italian Giorgio Morandi, than to the art trends of his time. As Thiebaud said: ‘Common objects become strangely uncommon when removed from their context.’ (G. Cooper, Wayne Thiebaud: Survey of Painting 1950-1972. Long Beach: California State University. 1972. n.p.) Instead of relying on an overtly sensational image in order to create an emotion, Thiebaud prefers to use a familiar one, creating an enchanting sense of nostalgia as one recalls the simple pleasure of a child entering a patisserie.
In Millefeuilles, the texture of the cream vacillates between light areas, heavy outlines and velvety applications of paint, which build up to create the effect of a delicious pastry. Nonetheless, the rich ink black background on which Thiebaud paints the lush millefeuilles could be considered the real subject of this work. Though at first sight the watercolour is reminiscent of Pop Art, there is also an abstract nature to the work as Thiebaud meditates on the beauty of form and shape for its own sake. As Adam Gopnik has written, 'His method…has the effect not of eliminating the Pop resonance of his subjects but of slowing down and chastening the associations they evoke, so that a host of ambivalent feelings—nostalgic and satiric and elegiac—can come back later, calmed down and contemplative: enlightened.' (A. Gopnik, ‘The Art World: Window Gazing’, in New Yorker, April 29. 1991, p. 80).