Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP)Dongdaemun
Hyundai Card Culture Project 31: Wayne Thiebaud [The Order of Things]
Korea's first major retrospective of Wayne Thiebaud, one of the 20th century's leading artists, known for his distinctive paintings of everyday objects.
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The last wall holds a single painting: One-Hundred-Year-Old Clown (2020), Wayne Thiebaud's final self-portrait, made a year before he died, his face whitened and in costume. Everything before it is 105 paintings and drawings across about 70 years, and the curators' first point is that the cakes are not the subject.
Dieter Buchhart and Anna Karina Hofbauer argue Thiebaud was an abstract painter who happened to paint cakes. "The frosting on the cakes is also paint, the pie is also a triangle," Buchhart says, and the thick impasto makes cream look like real frosting. The Korea Herald describes a roughly chronological route, from a de Kooning-influenced Cigar Counter (1955) through the 1960s food paintings to portraits, cityscapes and beach scenes. Thiebaud lined up shoes in rows in 1975; the Dongdaemun wholesale malls outside still do it with real ones.
It is in Museum Exhibition Hall 1, open daily 10:00 to 20:00 (last entry an hour earlier), until 21 February 2027. Adults pay 23,000 won; Hyundai Card members get 20% off.
Editor's pick
The last wall holds only One-Hundred-Year-Old Clown, Thiebaud's final self-portrait, face whitened. Before it, 105 works argue the cakes were never the subject: "the frosting on the cakes is also paint, the pie is also a triangle," says curator Dieter Buchhart.
Look for
Cigar Counter (1955)
A gestural, de Kooning-influenced painting from before the cakes, showing how loose his early handling was.
Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts (1962)
A large canvas lent by the Sheldon Museum of Art, with food spread across a tilted table in thick impasto.
Five Seated Figures (1965)
People sit side by side under studio lighting without looking at one another.
Delights (1964)
A series of seventeen etchings and drypoints, the printmaking side of the show.
One-Hundred-Year-Old Clown (2020)
His last self-portrait hangs alone on the final wall, white-faced and in costume.
Good for
- First-Timers
- Nerding Out
With kids
The exhibition is rated suitable for all ages; tickets are 18,000 won for youth and 15,000 won for children.
Free in the same building
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Image credits
2
- Dali · Differently · DaliCourtesy of Hangaram Art Museum
- Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP)lumoplank / Wikimedia Commons, CC0