Lemon Cake 1964

Wayne Thiebaud made this painting, Lemon Cake, with oil paint, and it looks like he made it alla prima, all in one go, with creamy strokes of yellow and blue. I can imagine Thiebaud standing in front of the canvas, loading his brush with thick paint, probably thinking about dessert, and about other painters. He’s famous for cakes, but I wonder if he was looking at Morandi, too? There’s something so geometrical and still about the way the cake is positioned in the center of the painting, like a monument. Even the shadow cast by the cake has hard edges, adding to the composition's overall sense of volume and geometric form. It's funny how artists are always in conversation, whether they know it or not. They influence each other and come back to painting the same thing, like cake, but it’s never the same, is it? Painting is like that, it’s always open for new interpretations and meanings, it never stays still.