American painter Wayne Thiebaud, known for his paintings depicting the symbols of post-war America, died Sunday at the age of 101.
According to an advertisement from the University of California where he taught for more than four decades, Thiebaud, whose works pay homage to the ordinary objects of everyday life, was “a brilliant artist, and his work encourages us forever to see our world in a new light, where common objects can reach iconic heights ”.
A press release from the University, quoted by the CNN news channel, recalls that the late artist of French origin and born in Arizona, has been associated, by art critics, with “Pop Art” because of his interest in objects of mass culture, although his works, executed in the fifties and sixties, therefore predate the works of artists emblematic of this movement.
Lamenting the loss of a “great gift to the world,” California Governor Gavin Newsom noted in a statement that Thiebaud has transformed everyday life into an iconic array of shapes and colors.
Thiebaud focused in his painting, according to several critics, on banality in a way that suggests irony and distance from his subjects.
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