Wayne Thiebaud (1920–2021)
1961
Oil on canvas
Few objects epitomise modern American food more fully than the hot dog. In this defining early painting, Wayne Thiebaud attempted to conjure the ideal image of these ubiquitous snacks, the sausages perfectly held in their rolls and completed with a yellow streak of mustard. His ability to convey the essence of his subject, shorn of all extraneous detail, was rooted in his earlier career working in advertising and illustration, professions he held in high esteem. Five Hot Dogs was shown in Thiebaud’s breakthrough exhibition at the Allan Stone Gallery in New York in 1962 and in other influential shows over the following years.