Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
While famous for his paintings of American confections, Wayne Thiebaud’s passionate engagement with art history remains largely overlooked. In FAMSF’s newest documentary, produced in support of the exhibition Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes From Art, discover the lesser-known influences, references, and reinterpretations that shaped his distinctive style.
See Thiebaud’s art for yourself! Book tickets here: https://famsf.art/thiebaud-exhibition
Shop the exhibition catalogue and collection here: shop.famsf.org/collections/wayne-thiebaud-art-comes-from-art
Learn more about the exhibition: famsf.org/exhibitions/wayne-thiebaud
About the exhibition
Wayne Thiebaud (1920–2021) became famous for his colorful paintings of American confections and buffets. He was also a self-described art “thief,” who openly drew ideas from and reinterpreted old and new European and American artworks. An influential teacher at Sacramento Junior College and the University of California, Davis, Thiebaud never stopped learning. He believed that art history is a continuum that connects artists of the past, present, and future. Highlighting work from across the beloved artist’s six-decade career, this exhibition features Thiebaud’s inventive reinterpretations and direct copies of famous artworks, as well as objects from his personal art collection that inspired him. Approximately 60 quintessential works by Thiebaud — including paintings of people (alone and together); still lives of cakes, tabletops, and other ordinary objects; cityscapes featuring soaring buildings; and mountain landscapes — offer an in-depth exploration of one of the most important and overlooked aspects of his creative practice: his passionate engagement with art history.
Learn More:
Wayne Thiebaud and the Art of Reinterpretation
famsf.org/stories/wayne-thiebaud-art-reinterpretation
One of the most important aspects of Wayne Thiebaud’s art practice was his passionate engagement with art history. A self-described art “thief,” Thiebaud openly drew ideas from and reinterpreted works by others. Some appropriations are more apparent, referencing subjects or poses, while others are more subtle, capturing qualities like mood or meaning. Showcasing Thiebaud’s deep appreciation for his fellow artists past and present, these reinterpretations reveal his perception that the entire history of art was as relevant and inspiring as the most contemporary art.
A talk on Wayne Thiebaud
youtube.com/live/1gQgk0Ece0g
Join Timothy Anglin Burgard, Distinguished Senior Curator and Curator in Charge of American Art, for an exploration of Wayne Thiebaud’s fascinating philosophy of art history, as well as his career as a self-described “art thief” who appropriated and reinterpreted artworks from the past and the present.
Shaping the Land: Wayne Thiebaud’s Ponds and Streams
famsf.org/stories/shaping-the-land-wayne-thiebaud-s-ponds-and-streams
Wayne Thiebaud’s Ponds and Streams (2001) offers a disorienting, aerial view of a patchwork of intensely cultivated fields and bending waterways spread across farmland in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. The original natural environment has been practically obliterated and subsumed within industrial agriculture: this agricultural landscape, with its orchards, pastures, and row crops, stands in place of former freshwater wetlands and channels that have been reshaped to accommodate the needs of both small-scale and corporate farms that grow many of the fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains that end up on our plates. In addition to its bountiful farmlands, this area is also home to natural habitats, managed wetlands, and both urban and rural communities — it is truly a microcosm of what makes California special.
Subscribe to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco: youtube.com/@FAMSF?sub_confirmation=1
While famous for his paintings of American confections, Wayne Thiebaud’s passionate engagement with art history remains largely overlooked. In FAMSF’s newest documentary, produced in support of the exhibition Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes From Art, discover the lesser-known influences, references, and reinterpretations that shaped his distinctive style.
See Thiebaud’s art for yourself! Book tickets here: https://famsf.art/thiebaud-exhibition
Shop the exhibition catalogue and collection here: shop.famsf.org/collections/wayne-thiebaud-art-comes-from-art
Learn more about the exhibition: famsf.org/exhibitions/wayne-thiebaud
About the exhibition
Wayne Thiebaud (1920–2021) became famous for his colorful paintings of American confections and buffets. He was also a self-described art “thief,” who openly drew ideas from and reinterpreted old and new European and American artworks. An influential teacher at Sacramento Junior College and the University of California, Davis, Thiebaud never stopped learning. He believed that art history is a continuum that connects artists of the past, present, and future. Highlighting work from across the beloved artist’s six-decade career, this exhibition features Thiebaud’s inventive reinterpretations and direct copies of famous artworks, as well as objects from his personal art collection that inspired him. Approximately 60 quintessential works by Thiebaud — including paintings of people (alone and together); still lives of cakes, tabletops, and other ordinary objects; cityscapes featuring soaring buildings; and mountain landscapes — offer an in-depth exploration of one of the most important and overlooked aspects of his creative practice: his passionate engagement with art history.
Learn More:
Wayne Thiebaud and the Art of Reinterpretation
famsf.org/stories/wayne-thiebaud-art-reinterpretation
One of the most important aspects of Wayne Thiebaud’s art practice was his passionate engagement with art history. A self-described art “thief,” Thiebaud openly drew ideas from and reinterpreted works by others. Some appropriations are more apparent, referencing subjects or poses, while others are more subtle, capturing qualities like mood or meaning. Showcasing Thiebaud’s deep appreciation for his fellow artists past and present, these reinterpretations reveal his perception that the entire history of art was as relevant and inspiring as the most contemporary art.
A talk on Wayne Thiebaud
youtube.com/live/1gQgk0Ece0g
Join Timothy Anglin Burgard, Distinguished Senior Curator and Curator in Charge of American Art, for an exploration of Wayne Thiebaud’s fascinating philosophy of art history, as well as his career as a self-described “art thief” who appropriated and reinterpreted artworks from the past and the present.
Shaping the Land: Wayne Thiebaud’s Ponds and Streams
famsf.org/stories/shaping-the-land-wayne-thiebaud-s-ponds-and-streams
Wayne Thiebaud’s Ponds and Streams (2001) offers a disorienting, aerial view of a patchwork of intensely cultivated fields and bending waterways spread across farmland in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. The original natural environment has been practically obliterated and subsumed within industrial agriculture: this agricultural landscape, with its orchards, pastures, and row crops, stands in place of former freshwater wetlands and channels that have been reshaped to accommodate the needs of both small-scale and corporate farms that grow many of the fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains that end up on our plates. In addition to its bountiful farmlands, this area is also home to natural habitats, managed wetlands, and both urban and rural communities — it is truly a microcosm of what makes California special.
Subscribe to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco: youtube.com/@FAMSF?sub_confirmation=1
![[Day 1] Bridges: Social Engagement in Artists’ Books/ 2021 Reva and David Logan Symposium](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rEsYg-nNJCo/mqdefault.jpg "[Day 1] Bridges: Social Engagement in Artists’ Books/ 2021 Reva and David Logan Symposium
As potent tools for understanding, books can bridge disparate cultures. This year’s Logan Symposium brings together six powerful and courageous voices, artists who have traveled the world, and traveled within themselves, to bring back visual and poetic testimony.
About the Speakers
Dana Gioia (Keynote): Creativity, Collaboration, & Community
Dana Gioia is a poet and critic with numerous awards to his credit and a long history of collaboration with letterpress printers and artists. His 1992 book Can Poetry Matter? was a finalist for the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism. He is a former Poet Laureate of California and from 2003 to 2009 was chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. For nine years Gioia was the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at USC. He now divides his time between Los Angeles and Sonoma County, California. (danagioia.com)
Nigel Poor: Stories from San Quentin
Description
Nigel Poor, an artist, and photographer is a Professor of Photography at CSU Sacramento and is widely known as co-host and co-creator with Earlonne Woods of the celebrated podcast Ear Hustle. Her book The San Quentin Project (Aperture, 2021), based on classes she has taught at San Quentin on the theory and history of photography, documents the work of incarcerated students. Her fine art has been widely exhibited and collected. (nigelpoor.com)
Philip Zimmermann: Delirium
Philp Zimmermann founded his imprint, Spaceheater Editions, in 1979, and has since published several dozen editions of his mostly photo-based book works, with thirty-eight editions currently in print. A recent work, Delirium, a striking evocation of the contagions of 2020, both medical and political, was selected by the professional design association AIGA as one of the fifty best-designed books of the year. Recently retired as a professor of design at the University of Arizona, he lives in Tucson. (spaceheat.com)
Andre Bradley, Dark Archives, 1–41
Andre Bradley’s Dark Archives, 1–41, was shortlisted for the Photo-Text Book Award at Les Rencontres de la Photographie and the Paris Photo/Aperture Foundation First PhotoBook Award, both in 2016. His work is in public and private art collections and libraries including the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and Scripps Colleges Ella Strong Denison Library. Bradley holds MFA degrees from Ithaca College and the Rhode Island School of Design, where he received the T.C. Colley Award for Photographic Excellence. He lives and works in Philadelphia. (elanaschlenker.com/dark-archives/)")
