Number Sense

About the Artist and Artwork

Thiebaud, Wayne (American, born 1920)

Like many artists of his generation, Wayne Thiebaud began his career as a commercial artist, including a short stint as a teen at Walt Disney Studios, before formally studying at San Jose State University. He came to Sacramento in the early 1950s for graduate study at (then) Sacramento State College and taught at Sacramento City College for nine years. In 1960, he joined the faculty of the art department at the University of California, Davis.

Thiebaud might have remained a beloved regional figure but for a 1956–57 teaching hiatus during which he worked on Madison Avenue in New York City. There he became acquainted with Elaine and Willem de Kooning, Philip Pearlstein, and other art luminaries. The turning point was a one-man exhibition at Allan Stone Gallery in 1962, which featured Thiebaud’s still lifes. This happened to be the moment the Pop Art movement captured the nation’s attention, and Thiebaud’s subjects were confectioners’ delights. In a May 1962 Time magazine summation of Pop Art’s stars, Thiebaud’s Allan Stone Gallery show inspired the moniker, The Slice-of-Cake School.

With a bright palette, consumerist imagery, and graphic presentation, Thiebaud’s paintings were of the moment, but differed from Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Rosenquist. Those artists emphasized the methods and appearance of mechanical reproduction, but Thiebaud was a painterly practitioner. Depicting his subjects against clean white backgrounds, he outlined his forms with bands of rainbow color, creating an optical halation that further activated the surface of his work. He set the confections against vibrant blue shadows, and the cool contrast this provided to the artificial colors of the sugary treats became a signature element of Thiebaud’s style. With their thick, luscious impasto, Thiebaud’s paintings are greatly admired for the manner in which his edibles appear fully modeled and tantalizingly delicious.

Thiebaud’s figure studies from the same period, including the portrait of wife Betty Jean, expand upon the explorations evident in the still lifes. In this instance, a contemplative Betty Jean and her open book of portrait studies are rendered in a markedly subdued palette that serves not only to differentiate her importance from other subjects, but also to convey the artist’s greater life aspirations. With this conception, Thiebaud asserted himself as a knowledgeable and dedicated artist as opposed to a passing Pop faddist. Likewise, Thiebaud turned to the landscape during the 1960s and, by the 1980s, was highly regarded for his vertiginous interpretations of the San Francisco cityscape. A profound response to the Sacramento landscape, with its broad river bends and flat, but colorful plains simultaneously runs throughout Thiebaud’s production, resulting in a substantial body of works on paper and luscious oils that establish an intimate record of the artist’s engagement with place.

Lesson Procedure

Day 1

1. Have students look carefully at the image, Boston Cremes. This image is accessible on Digital Crocker at crockerartmuseum.org, on the Striking Gold CD ROM, and slides and overheads available for purchase through School Services.

2. Summarize Boston Cremes to the students and provide a definition of Pop Art. Explain how Thiebaud began his career as a commercial artist and what those professionals do today (advertisements, business cards, packaging, etc.).

3. Lead an open class discussion with questions, and record all comments on the board. Ask:

   a. What is a Boston cream pie? What is your favorite kind of cake, pie, or dessert? Do these look delicious or not? How has the artist made them look appetizing?

     b. What colors and shapes do you see in the painting? If you wanted to create an artwork of your favorite dessert, what shapes and colors would you use? What other foods do you like? Have you tried foods from other cultures? If you wanted to create an artwork of another type of food, what shapes and colors would you use?

     c. Do you think the artist likes Boston Cremes or not? Why do you think he painted numerous slices instead of just one slice? Do the slices all look the same or do they vary in any way? Where do you see cake displayed this way (in a market, restaurant, bakery, etc.)?

4. Compare how Pop artists used the repetition of consumer products against how Thiebaud has used the rows of sliced cake. How many rows of desserts are in the painting? Where in nature can you see examples of repetition? Break students into groups and have them discuss the following math problems:

     a. Anne has three slices of cake. She will give four slices to each of her three friends. How many slices will be left for Anne?

     b. There are fifteen slices. The slices are equally divided among three students. How many slices will each student get?

     c. If one whole cake is cut into 5 slices, what fraction of the cake is one slice?

     d. Which fraction is equal to one whole cake – 1/10, 1/5, 2/3, or 5/5?

     e. A teacher divides all of the slices so each student gets a piece of cake. Each student gets 1/15 of the total cake available. How many students are in the class?

     f. A pie was divided into fifths. Anne ate 1/5 of the pie. Will ate 2/5 of the pie. Ming ate 1/5 of the pie. How much of the pie was left?

     g. Anne, Will, Ming, and Kanye sold these fifteen slices of pie for $3 each. They decided to divide the money equally. How much money did each of the four children get?

Day 2

1. Art production: Show students an example of the paper mobile art project (see the provided example – egg, sausage and toast). Lead the class in a discussion of other favorite food items, especially traditional or cultural food items that are personal favorites for the students. Discuss how to relate the food item to a shape (an egg shape is round like a circle/sphere, sausage is rectangular with rounded ends, and toast is square with rounded corners).

2. Have students write their ideas down on a piece of notebook or scratch paper. Students will list the theme, such as breakfast, three food items and each item’s corresponding shape. Remind the students that one item is equal to 1/3 of the mobile, two items equals 2/3, and three items equals 3/3 or 1 whole mobile.

3. Once you have approved the theme, food items, and shapes, have the students select colored paper that appropriately represents each food item. For example, pink paper would be appropriate to represent a scoop of strawberry ice cream. They will need three sheets for each item for a total of nine sheets of paper.

4. For each item, have students stack three sheets of colored paper and fold the stack of paper in half. Have the students draw half of one food shape onto the paper and cut out the item with the fold in the middle, so that when unfolded the paper will reveal a whole shape. Follow this procedure for all three items.

5. Unfold the cut outs, but leave the layers stacked. Students will lay his or her cut outs in a vertical row with about one to two inches in between each. Take a piece of string and lay it across the fold, leaving about ten inches extra at the top. Staple the string down the middle of each stack of paper cut outs.

6. Fold the top and bottom layers of each cut out (along the original fold, so that each layer is revealed) to create a 3-D effect for the finished mobile. Tie a loop at the top of the string and tack or tape the mobile to the ceiling. You’ll have a ceiling full of adorable, colorful mobiles!