Wayne Thiebaud

November 15,1920 - December 25, 2021

Morton Wayne Thiebaud (Wayne Thiebaud) was born in Mesa, Arizona on November 15, 1920 and died in Sacramento, California on December 25, 2021.

In 1921 the Thiebaud family moved to California and, except for a brief period in Utah (1931-1933), Wayne was raised in Long Beach. At Long Beach Polytechnic High School (1935-1938), he showed an interest in sports, music, theater and drawing, particularly cartooning. In 1936 he worked as a summer apprentice in the animation department of Walt Disney Studios. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Air Force (1942-1945) and was stationed at Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento, his first introduction to the area. Assigned duties as a commercial artist, he drew a cartoon strip for the base newspaper. After the war, he became a designer and artist at Rexall Drug Company in Los Angeles (1946-1949) where he created a comic strip for the company magazine. He began to paint in an expressionist figurative style and exhibited in a group show at the Los Angeles County Museum in 1948. In 1950 he enrolled as a student at Sacramento State College (now California State University) in Sacramento and received a Bachelor of Arts in 1951 and a Master of Arts in 1953. In 1951, he became an instructor at Sacramento Junior College (now Sacramento City College) and taught both art and art history there through 1960. During 1956-57, he took a leave of absence and lived in New York, where he met the painters of the New York School, including Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline and Barnett Newman. In 1959 he married Betty Jean Carr. In 1960 he was appointed assistant professor in the department of art at the University of California Davis. He held subsequent positions there as associate professor (1963-1967), and professor (1967 until his retirement at age 70).

In 1960-1961 he found his signature style with brightly colored still-life paintings of food and other objects, shown against neutral backgrounds. In April 1962 he received national recognition with his first one-person exhibition in New York at the Allan Stone Gallery, a commercial and critical success. This was followed in October by his inclusion in New Realists at the Sidney Janis Gallery, the first group exhibition of Pop Art in America. In 1963 he began a series of paintings of people, shown in stiff formal poses and with little facial expression. His range of subjects expanded once more in 1966 when he embarked on a series of landscapes depicting sites in Northern California. In 1975 he and Betty Jean purchased a second home on Potrero Hill in San Francisco and he began to focus on eccentric cityscapes emphasizing the steep hills. During the mid-1990s he embarked on a series of brightly colored landscapes depicting the Sacramento River Delta. Wayne recently culminated a life-long interest in mountain paintings with a show at Acquavella Galleries, New York, in 2019. Another life-long preoccupation was his interest in comics, cartoons and clowns. This was developed into an exhibition of over 50 clown paintings that was exhibited at Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, in 2020, and Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, in 2021.

Wayne’s many awards include: Distinguished Teaching of Art Award by the College of Art Association, 1981; Faculty Research Lecture Medal, UCDavis, 1984; Governor’s Award for the Arts, California Arts Council, 1991; The National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton, 1994; Lifetime Achievement Award for Art, American Academy of Design, New York, NY, 2001; Bay Area Treasure Award, SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA, 2007; Inducted into The California Hall of Fame at the California Museum, Sacramento, CA, 2010; The Lifetime Achievement Award for Innovation from UCDavis, 2016.

Wayne also has several honorary doctorate degrees: California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA, 1972; The Art Institute of Southern California, Laguna Beach, CA, 1993; The Art Institute of Boston, 1997; California State University, Sacramento, CA, 1998.

Wayne is well deserved of all the accolades that were bestowed upon him. He was a very disciplined and hardworking painter. When he wasn’t teaching, he would spend hours standing, painting at the easel. This is how his summers were spent. This involved, on occasion, friends, relatives and family members to pose for him. A job, that as kids, we hated! Who wants to sit in a chair and not move for hours? It was all worth it when you saw the magic of a very fine pencil drawing that was produced or to

see your likeness come alive in paint. Wayne kept countless sketchbooks and would draw constantly in airports, car rides and even quickly off the tv at night.

One time he was sketching on a little pad while he was in line. He was quickly told to stop by a uniformed officer. He was in a bank! He was also witnessed driving and sketching on an open sketchbook that was laid out on the passenger seat! This was in places like Nevada and at a time when people didn’t care too much if you killed someone while you were driving, I guess!

Wayne was a great storyteller, and joke teller, who could captivate an audience whether it be a small dinner party or a large lecture hall. His slide lectures, showing a broad and varied selection of art history, were well attended and stimulated insightful thoughts for all. His enthusiasm, insight, and descriptions of artwork, from Cave Painting, Renaissance to Modern, would leave one with a greater sense of man’s capabilities and achievements. All the erudition aside, Wayne’s favorite dinner time limerick was:

There once was a man from Crass

Whose balls were made of spun glass

When tinkled together – they played “Stormy Weather” And lightning shot out of his ass!

This is with four Doctor’s degrees, mind you!

Wayne also had a vast interest in music. He owned several Martin acoustic guitars which he found in

local thrift stores. He loved old cowboy songs, classical music, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger and Richie Havens. He even played guitar along with fellow painter, teacher, and film maker, Darrell Forney. On drums was also a fellow painter, David D’Angelo (who gave me his drum set when I was 12). Sometimes Wayne would play on the mandolin as well, but admittedly Darrell was the more accomplished musician. I can’t totally recall, but I think possibly the painter and City College teacher, Willard Melton also played with them. They were short-lived and played mostly at small art parties and openings. Darrell Forney owned an old bus and they would play inside there. I remember the drums set-up in the aisle. They would go to their friend’s homes at early hours in the morning and “force” them to get on. I believe alcohol may have been involved!

Wayne used to say that he’d like to die on the tennis court and after several tumbles (of which he came out bloodied and battered) I said “you probably will”. Wayne used to play religiously at Park Terrace Swimming and Tennis Club in South Sacramento. He would partner with Bill Bachmann, and play his life-long friend and fellow painter, Pat Dullanty, and Sacramento Bee critic, Bill Glackin. Wayne had a deadly drop-shot, wicked spin serve and a base-line lob. These skills along with his tenacity provided for long singles matches and entertaining doubles.

After years at Park Terrace, Wayne started playing at Sutter Lawn Tennis Club in East Sacramento. There he played daily, around lunchtime, with a long list of personnel over the years. They included; Jack Adolfson, George Biery, Larry Crabbe, Peter Dunn, Dick Gann, Ed Ishi, Herb Jackson, Harry Lambros, Burnett Miller, Larry O’Connor, Bob Reid, Bob Reinhardt, Jay Rich, Milt Richardson, Ron Rott, Ralph Scurfield and countless others.

Wayne was preceded in death by his wife, Betty Jean (1929-2015), his son, Paul LeBaron Thiebaud (19602010), and his stepson, Mark Bult (1954-2013). He is survived by stepson, Matt Bult (Maria Bult) and two daughters, from a previous marriage to Patricia Patterson, Twinka Thiebaud and Mallary Thiebaud, as well as a stepdaughter, Jill Silva. He also has six grandchildren; Twinka’s daughter, Sierra Mellinger, Mallary’s son, Cody Walter, Alex and Nicolas Bult, sons of Matt and Maria Bult, Colette and Danny Thiebaud, daughters of Paul and Karen Thiebaud.

The Bult Family and the Wayne Thiebaud Foundation would like to thank and acknowledge the Galleries and their staff for their efforts in promoting, exhibiting, and selling the artwork of Wayne Thiebaud. These include Kelly Purcell of the Paul Thiebaud Gallery, Colleen Casey of LeBaron’s Fine Art, Eleanor Acquavella Dejoux of Acquavella Galleries, and Kathan Brown of Crown Point Press. We would also like to express our thanks to our Trust and Foundation Lawyers for making the transition of Wayne’s

estate an effortless one. Thanks to Donna Courville, Stuart List and Rhonda Holman of Boutin Jones Inc., and Wayne Thiebaud Foundation Lawyer, Nancy Lee, as well as accountants Helen Dahl and Greg Calegari of Calegari & Morris in San Francisco.

The Wayne Thiebaud Foundation would also like to thank and acknowledge the following art critics and art historians that have written on Wayne and his artwork over the years. They are as follows: Eve Aschheim, Kenneth Baker, Bill Berkson, Gene Cooper, Victoria Dalkey, Julia Friedman, Adam Gopnik, Dave Hickey, Thomas Hoving, Robert Hughes, Michael Kimmelman, Hilton Kramer, Margaretta Lovell, Peter Plagens, Peter Schjeldahl, Karen Wilkin, John Wilmerding, Richard Wollheim, John Yau and a host of others.

Thank you to all the caregivers that attended to Wayne’s needs at the end of his life. They are: Fina Varea, owner of “Smile Awhile Care Agency”, Lesita, Tui, and Sam. Wayne’s primary doctor, Ingvilde Lane, as well as hospice nurse, Stephanie, hospice social worker, Keri, and Brian Ng of Sutter Hospice.

A special thank you to Becky Williams, who tirelessly helped to procure Wayne’s daily needs for the past several years. She was an integral part of seeing that he had a well-stocked kitchen and performed a multitude of errands to enable Wayne to paint full-time.

Maria Bult is to be thanked (and possibly knighted) for her loyal and loving care of Wayne in his time of need. This is a re-occurring theme in her life – the need to take care of others – one in which she does selflessly and with much aplomb.

Wayne was laid to rest, next to his wife, Betty Jean, during a small private burial at Odd Fellows Lawn Cemetery on January 5, 2022. The family acknowledges, with much gratitude, the beautiful and elegant work of Balshor Florist; the grace, care and professionalism of Brian Noble of George L. Klumpp Chapel of Flowers funeral home; the well spoken words in a tribute by Larry Crabbe; and the wonderful and comforting sounds of song and acoustic guitar by John Madden.

At 101, with declining health, Wayne’s daily greeting would be “well, I have been sooooo very fortunate in my life!”

This obituary was compiled and written by Wayne’s stepson (not adopted!), Matt Bult, who is proving once again to be ill-equipped, uninformed and unprofessional. His microcephalic intellectual agility borders on the sub-moronic. He is, however, promoting his new sartorial zeitgeist where “haute couture” would involve wearing a Viking’s helmet and culottes on a daily basis.