San Francisco West Side Ridge

Media - 2004.30.5 - SAAM-2004.30.5_2 - 96007
Copied Wayne Thiebaud, San Francisco West Side Ridge, 2001, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in. (91.4 x 91.4 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Sam Rose and Julie Walters, 2004.30.5

Artwork Details

Title
San Francisco West Side Ridge
Artist
Date
2001
Location
Dimensions
36 x 36 in. (91.4 x 91.4 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Sam Rose and Julie Walters
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Keywords
  • Architecture Exterior — commercial
  • Cityscape — street
  • Cityscape — California — San Francisco
  • Cityscape — bird’s eye view
Object Number
2004.30.5
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2004.30.5

Artwork Description

Wayne Thiebaud was fascinated by the dramatic vistas and abrupt disjunctions of the San Francisco landscape. Denying the laws of normal perspective, San Francisco West Side Ridge is a commotion of rectangles, horizontals, and diagonals that thrust downward and obliquely to destabilize streets and urban buildings. Parked vehicles seem pinned to vertical curbs; turrets, palm trees, and a tiny figure on a balcony confirm life at the top of the precipice; and shadows cast by street lamps point like arrows to the dramatic drop-off at the right.