![\"'Candy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SEI_269499754.jpg\")
\u2018Candy Counter\u2019 (1969) evokes the artificial colours of jaw-busting lollipops, the snap of toffee apple shells, and the yielding firmness of nougat (Photo: The Courtauld Gallery)<\/p>\nIt\u2019s no wonder that there are barriers in front of the paintings in the Courtauld Gallery\u2019s new exhibition. Wayne Thiebaud\u2019s luscious displays of iced cakes and slices of meringue-filled pies are gloriously, irresistibly lickable.<\/p>\n
The wobble of custard, the coarse foam of piped whipped cream, the gloss of a sugar glaze \u2013 all are so persuasively rendered in buttery sweeps and flourishes. The more extravagantly painterly Thiebaud\u2019s gestures are, the more deliciously eatable they become.<\/p>\n
Candy Counter (1962) catalogues this topsy-turvy sensory world in the artificial colours of jaw-busting lollipops, the snap of toffee apple shells, and the yielding firmness of nougat waiting to be sliced. Thiebaud\u2019s buttercream paintwork is not limited to the description of sugary treats, but extends across the canvas, so that the glass and metal counter, and even the cool blue wall behind are as luscious as a birthday cake. The set of scales and the lollipops on the counter top complete the effect, the paint around them pushed into a smooth ridge, just as if they were decorations pressed into fresh icing.<\/p>\n
\u2018Candy Counter\u2019 (1969) evokes the artificial colours of jaw-busting lollipops, the snap of toffee apple shells, and the yielding firmness of nougat (Photo: The Courtauld Gallery)<\/p>\n
Born in 1920, Thiebaud lived in Sacramento, California, until his death in 2021, working as an illustrator and commercial art director whose expertise was in designing in-store displays. In the early 50s he turned to teaching, which gave him time to paint, and, as an artist who had himself learned on the job, he said \u201cit was really my education\u201d.<\/p>\n
Thiebaud is celebrated in his native USA, but in Europe he\u2019s much less well-known, and this is the first exhibition of his work to be staged in a UK museum. The Courtauld<\/a> is a rare European custodian of Thiebaud\u2019s work. Its recent acquisitions include Cake Slices (1963), the cue for American Still Life, and a companion exhibition of works on paper.<\/p>\n Thiebaud\u2019s breakthrough came in 1961, when he shared his debut show in New York with another unknown artist, Andy Warhol<\/a>. But though they share the lexicon of post-war mass production and American consumer culture, Thiebaud\u2019s commitment to painting contradicts Pop Art\u2019s cool cynicism, and its fascination with the printed images of advertising and the mass media.<\/p>\n Thiebaud\u2019s \u201cmultiples\u201d are superficially similar to Warhol\u2019s, but his arrangements of seemingly identical slices of pies and cakes are marked by slight differences and imperfections: the fruit that bleeds into softening pastry, or a ball of ice cream beginning to melt, comparable to the dying flowers, or spoiling fruit that, in traditional still life painting, serves as a reminder of mortality.<\/p>\n![\"'Five](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SEI_269499755.jpg\")
\u2018Five Hot Dogs\u2019 (1961). Thiebaud\u2019s \u2018multiples\u2019 are superficially similar to Warhol\u2019s, but his arrangements of seemingly identical items are marked by slight differences and imperfections (Photo: John Janca)<\/p>\n
![\"'Four](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SEI_269499890.jpg\")
\u2018Four Pinball Machines\u2019 (1962). Thiebaud\u2019s hot dogs, pies, pinball machines and deli counters are painted from memory, recalling scenes from his youth that, by the 60s, were already being superseded (Photo: Courtesy of Acquavella Galleries)<\/p>\n