Wake Up and Smell the Pancakes

To begin National Pancake Week in the right spirit, we present this tasty breakfast scene by artist Wayne Thiebaud.

Categorizing an artist's work according to a particular style or movement can, in some instances, be an easy task. Labeling, in the case of Wayne Thiebaud, however, is not so simple. A California painter of major standing, he has been described as "the poet laureate of the coffee break," a disciple of Plato in search of the "perfect triangle, cube, and sphere," and a practitioner of the "grand art of painting." His work has been associated with Pop Art, new realism, and American realism. . . . In short, there have been as many interpretations of his still lifes, landscapes, figures, and cityscapes as there have been essays written about them by critics and art historians.

Source: National Museum of American Art (CD-ROM). (New York and Washington D.C.: MacMillan Digital in cooperation with the National Museum of American Art, 1996).

Pictured: Wayne Thiebaud (born 1920), Bacon and Eggs, from the book Delights,1964, published 1965, etching, 5 1/8 x 6 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. Frank Lobdell, San Francisco.