The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Wayne Thiebaud. American Still Life 

The Courtauld Gallery has unveiled the first-ever museum exhibition in the UK on the celebrated modern American artist Wayne Thiebaud (1920–2021). The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Wayne Thiebaud. American Still Life is on display now until 18 January 2026. 

One of the most original American artists of the 20th century, Thiebaud developed a unique style of painting to express his vision of post-war American culture through its everyday objects.    

The exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery focuses on Thiebaud’s break-out works of the 1960s that made his reputation and brings together some of the greatest paintings the artist produced during this remarkable period – lush and captivating depictions of quintessential modern American subjects, from cherry pies, hot dogs and candy counters to gumball dispensers and pinball machines. With these works, Thiebaud recast the genre of still life for the modern era. 

Thiebaud considered the everyday objects of American life to be a vital subject for contemporary art, and he saw his work as continuing the radical legacy of earlier still-life paintings by Chardin, Manet, Cézanne and others. Thiebaud believed in the importance of commonplace objects that might otherwise be overlooked or considered kitsch. His work turns hot dogs, lemon meringue pies and glossy cream cakes into the stuff of profound modern painting.   

The exhibition features rarely lent works from major museum collections in the USA, They include  Thiebaud’s epic painting Cakes, lent for the first time outside the US by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and Four Pinball Machines, one of his most significant works in a private collection. Other major loans include works from the Whitney Museum of Art, New York; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; and the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, among others. The exhibition also benefits from generous loans from the Wayne Thiebaud Foundation in Sacramento.  

An accompanying display in the Gilbert and Ildiko Butler Drawings Gallery, Wayne Thiebaud. Delights, focuses on the artist’s celebrated 1965 portfolio of 17 exquisite etchings to offer further insight into his still-life motifs and work as a graphic artist.   

The exhibition is curated by Dr Karen Serres, Senior Curator of Paintings, and Dr Barnaby Wright, Deputy Head of The Courtauld Gallery and Daniel Katz Curator of 20^th-century Art.

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