Acclaimed Food Painter Wayne Thiebaud Given a Retrospective

Four decades after Wayne Thiebaud premiered his paintings of delicious desserts, his mouth-watering work is the subject of a retrospective at the San Jose Museum of Art. Though his drawings and paintings have previously been displayed at the Whitney and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the San Jose museum is honoring the 89-year-old painter with “Wayne Thiebaud: 70 Years of Painting.” The show traces the Sacramento-based artist’s expansive career, including his earlier paintings of fishermen and landscapes, as well as the famed sweet treat and San Francisco street works, and his new beach series. His recent work is far less realistic and much more abstract, due to his interest in exploring the paint itself versus the accuracy of his subject.