Wayne Thiebaud was born in Mesa, Arizona, in 1920. He found work as a sign painter and apprenticed as an animator for The Walt Disney Studios before serving in the United States Army Air Force during World War II. After his service, he continued to work as a commercial artist—designing movie posters, making cartoons, and working in advertising—before pursuing the study of fine art in the late 1940s.

By the early 1960s, Thiebaud was painting the subjects for which he is best known, depicting quintessentially American, everyday objects in bright colors—such as cakes and pies, hot dogs and hamburgers, gumballs and lollipops, and jackpot machines. Rather than painting from life, Thiebaud represented these objects from memory, drawing from nostalgic recollections of bakeries and diners from his youth and contemporary commercial imagery. Although he is often classified as an American Pop painter—and he was included in the two historic and groundbreaking shows of 1962 that established the movement—Thiebaud never embraced the mantle of Pop Art and preferred to describe himself as a traditional painter of illusionistic forms.

The limited edition Wayne Thiebaud collection is available via the Fondation Beyeler exhibition and our THE SKATEROOM website. 10% of all revenue supports Concrete Jungle Foundation’s EduSkate program.