Lunch Table, 1964, by Wayne Thiebaud. Alan Meckler Collection, NY, photography courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum; photographed by Graham S Haber 2017 © Wayne Thiebaud/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Oh, to live in the world conjured up by artist Wayne Thiebaud! It’s a place filled with ice cream cones, cakes, pies, pastries, candies, gumballs, lollipops….

This summer, indulge in Thiebaud’s joyful delights at New York’s The Morgan Library & Museum, which is holding an exhibition, Wayne Thiebaud, Draftsman, focused on his works on paper — the first ever to do so in the artist’s decades-long career. In the accompanying catalogue, out by Thames & Hudson, curator Isabelle Dervaux writes that Thiebaud’s penchant for the desserts stemmed not from some super-sized sweet tooth but from their simple shapes. “I decided to go back to very basic, formalist concerns,” said Thiebaud, after an Abstract Expressionist phrase. “I took three basic shapes to work with: a rectangle, an ellipse or a circle and a triangle. Well, that’s a piece of pie.”

Wayne Thiebaud, Draftsman is on view through September 23rd, 2018.

Untitled (Three Ice Creams), 1964, by Wayne Thiebaud. Private collection, image courtesy Acquavella Galleries © Wayne Thiebaud/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Candy Sticks, 1964, by Wayne Thiebaud. Yale University Art Gallery, Bequest of Susan Morse Hilles © Wayne Thiebaud/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Ice Cream Cone, 1964, by Wayne Thiebaud. Collection of Gretchen and John Berggruen, San Francisco, photography courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum; photographed by Graham S. Haber 2017 © Wayne Thiebaud/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

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