Refrigerator Pies 1962

Curator: Oh, look at this feast for the eyes! "Refrigerator Pies," created in 1962 by Wayne Thiebaud, uses oil paint to depict row upon row of, well, delicious-looking pies. What are your first impressions? Editor: An almost aggressively joyful image, isn't it? All that sugary goodness lined up like battalions, daring you to resist. The thickness of the paint practically dares you to stick a finger in the icing. Curator: Exactly! That impasto technique, the way he builds up the paint, is crucial. Thiebaud isn’t just painting pies; he's building them, layer by delicious layer. And those geometric divisions in the composition give it a quirky sense of order, wouldn’t you agree? Editor: Yes, there’s something deeply symbolic about the repetition. Think of Warhol’s soup cans – it's Pop Art's love affair with mass-produced goodness, with this comforting idea that abundance is at everyone's reach, although there’s also an argument that he's critiquing it… Curator: A loaded kind of Americana. The colors too, those bright, almost cartoonish hues. They don't feel entirely real, and yet they’re instantly recognizable, linking the visual image of mass consumption and commodification. Editor: They speak to cultural memory, don't they? These pies represent, for a lot of people, an idea of home and a certain kind of nostalgia. Also, a reminder that our brains can become just as easily addicted to consumerism as to sugar. Curator: You’re right. There's this tension, between the pleasure and perhaps, an anxiety about all this “goodness.” Thiebaud's paintings, though often playful, hold these layers of interpretation, like one of his own pies! What stays with you most about this image? Editor: I’ll never look at a slice of pie the same way. Thiebaud captured not just its sugary delight but a whole world of cultural longing. Curator: I'll echo that, but adding a little laugh! Because after seeing this, who wouldn’t want to run to a bakery? It just tastes better through an artist's eyes, somehow.