Wayne Thiebaud (1920–2021)
1964
Oil on canvasboard
This small painting offers a fragment of individual pleasure: ice cream cones on a stand, just scooped and ready to enjoy. This frozen
moment of anticipation conjures a wider world of modern American leisure and sense of plenty during this period. However, the subject is inherently short-lived; ice creams are quick to melt or be eaten. As Wayne Thiebaud described, ‘The ice cream cone, for me, represents a kind
of joy, a sort of temporariness… That very bright spirit that it once had, that kind of colour, light, liveliness, soon will be gone.’ In this, Thiebaud continued a long tradition of still-life painting as an exploration of the fleeting nature of life.