Flatland River 1997

Wayne Thiebaud, sometime in the 20th century, painted Flatland River, which now hangs here at SFMOMA. Look at how he layers paint; it's almost sculptural. He creates a whole world with these deliberate marks, a world that feels both familiar and just a little bit off. The creamy texture of the paint is so tactile. I mean, you can almost feel the California sun baking the fields. See how he uses these cool blues and violets in the shadows? They make the landforms glow, like he's turned up the saturation dial. There's a tension between representation and abstraction that keeps your eye moving. I'm drawn to the lower part of the image, that strange collection of white arcs. I am reminded of David Hockney, another artist with an incredible sense of color. But with Thiebaud, there's this sense of nostalgia, of longing, maybe, for a simpler time. The painting becomes a space for multiple interpretations, inviting us to bring our own experiences and memories to the picture.