Wayne Thiebaud (1920–2021)
1963
Oil on canvas
Like many of Wayne Thiebaud’s still lifes, Peppermint Counter draws on memories of his youth. By the early 1960s, counters offering loose candy were disappearing in favour of prepackaged sweets on supermarket shelves. Thiebaud’s painting carries feelings of nostalgia and childhood desire, conveying a sense of delight in colour and pattern. As he recalled, ‘I was a kid selling papers on the street in Long Beach… We didn’t have a lot of money and I loved sweets and I’d go into the store and look at those bins full of candy with scoops in them.’ The display windows packed with sweets are like abstract paintings in their own right, Thiebaud finding artistic richness in even the most ephemeral things.