Editing Wayne Thiebaud (section)

== Career ==
Thiebaud subsequently began teaching at [[Sacramento City College]].<ref name="Wayne Thiebaud"/> In 1960, he became assistant professor at the [[University of California, Davis]], where he remained through 1991 and influencing numerous art students. He held a [[Professor Emeritus]] title there up until his death in late 2021. He occasionally gave [[Pro bono publico|pro bono]] lectures at U.C. Davis.

On a leave of absence during 1956–57,  he spent time in [[New York City]], where he became friends with [[Elaine de Kooning|Elaine]] and [[Willem de Kooning]]<ref name=BrownNYTimes /> and [[Franz Kline]], and was much influenced by these abstractionists as well as by proto-pop artists [[Robert Rauschenberg]] and [[Jasper Johns]]. During this time, he began a series of very small paintings based on images of food displayed in windows, and he focused on their basic shapes.

Returning to California, he pursued this subject matter and style, isolating triangles, circles, squares, etc. He also co-founded the Artists Cooperative Gallery, now Artists Contemporary Gallery, and other cooperatives including Pond Farm, having been exposed to the concept of cooperatives in New York.<ref>{{Cite web |title= Wayne Thiebaud, Playful Painter of the Everyday, Dies at 101|website=[[The New York Times]] |date=December 26, 2021 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/26/obituaries/wayne-thiebaud-dead.html |last1=Kimmelman |first1=Michael }}</ref>

In 1960, he had his first solo show in [[San Francisco]] at the [[San Francisco Museum of Modern Art]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rourke |first=Mary |date=2021-12-26 |title=Wayne Thiebaud, who was a realist painter, has died |url=https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2021-12-26/wayne-thiebaud-death-california-painter |access-date=2024-01-31 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> and shows in [[New York City]] at the Staempfli and Tanager galleries. These shows received little notice, but two years later, a 1962 [[Sidney Janis]] Gallery exhibition in New York officially launched [[Pop Art]], bringing Thiebaud national recognition, although he disclaimed being anything other than a painter of illusionistic form.

In 1961, Thiebaud met and became friends with art dealer [[Allan Barry Stone|Allan Stone]] (1932–2006), the man who gave him his first "break."<ref name="ThiebaudBerkson" /> Stone was Thiebaud's dealer until Stone's death in 2006.<ref name=ASG>{{cite web|title=Gallery|url=http://www.allanstonegallery.com/gallery/|publisher=Allan Stone Gallery|access-date=October 1, 2013|archive-date=October 4, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004215849/http://www.allanstonegallery.com/gallery/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Stone said of Thiebaud "I have had the pleasure of friendship with a complex and talented man, a terrific teacher and cook, the best raconteur in the west with a spin serve, and a great painter whose magical touch is exceeded only by his genuine modesty and humility.  Thiebaud's dedication to painting and his pursuit of excellence inspire all who are lucky enough to come in contact with him. He is a very special man."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cleary |first=Linda |date=2014-04-11 |title=Day One-Hundred and One- Wayne Thiebaud- Staring at Objects |url=https://dayoftheartist.com/2014/04/11/day-one-hundred-and-one-wayne-thiebaud-staring-at-objects/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |website=Day of the Artist |language=en-US}}</ref> After Stone's death, Thiebaud's son [[Paul Thiebaud]] (1960–2010) took over as his dealer. [[Paul Thiebaud]] was a successful art dealer in his own right and had eponymous galleries in Manhattan and San Francisco; he died June 19, 2010.

In 1962, Thiebaud's work was included, along with [[Roy Lichtenstein]], [[Andy Warhol]], [[Jim Dine]], [[Phillip Hefferton]], [[Joe Goode]], [[Edward Ruscha]], and [[Robert Dowd (artist)|Robert Dowd]], in the historically important and ground-breaking "[[New Painting of Common Objects]]," curated by [[Walter Hopps]] at the Pasadena Art Museum (now the [[Norton Simon Museum]] at Pasadena).<ref name=NortonSimon>{{cite web|title=Museum History|url=http://www.nortonsimon.org/museum-history/|publisher=Norton Simon Museum|access-date=October 1, 2013}}</ref> This exhibition is considered to have been one of the first [[Pop Art]] exhibitions in the United States. These painters were part of a new movement, in a time of social unrest, which shocked the United States and the art world.

In 1963, he turned increasingly to figure painting: wooden and rigid, with each detail sharply emphasized. In 1964, he made his first prints at [[Crown Point Press]], and continued to make prints throughout his career. In 1967, his work was shown at the Biennale Internationale.