Cakes

Wayne Thiebaud (1920–2021)

1963

Oil on canvas

In this celebrated painting, Wayne Thiebaud gives an epic account of one of his favourite motifs, a display of bright and brash cakes familiar from bakeries and diners across America. Working on an unusually large scale for a still-life painting, he accords both the genre itself and his commonplace subject matter monumental status. Thiebaud uses his paint thickly and lushly to accentuate what he considered the distinctly American character of the patterned, vividly coloured and excessively frosted offerings. Cakes was a standout work in exhibitions in New York and Los Angeles in 1963 and helped confirm Thiebaud’s emerging reputation as a distinctive painter of modern American life.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art from the Collectors Committee, the 50th Anniversary Gift Committee, and The Circle, with additional support from the Abrams Family in memory of Harry N. Abrams