Wayne Thiebaud (b. 1920)

A classic trio of mustard, ketchup, and mayonnaise, Condiments is Wayne Thiebaud's homage to the quintessential accompaniments to the iconic American meal and a showcase of Thiebaud’s masterful attention to form and color. He began his exploration into this classic motif in the 1961 painting on canvas Dressing Wells. In this 1972 rendering, he instead turns to paper as the support to capture the immediacy of eating and the tactile nature of the food: the smears of yellow, white and red are both brilliantly painterly and suggestively edible. The highly desirable, highly Thiebaud-esque shadows are emphasized in this example, each one a radiant blue halo emanating off the surface of the sheet.
One can imagine these bowls sitting out during a summer barbeque, with a joyful family surrounding them. Indeed, his frank embrace of a simplicity in our objects is not meant to be a comment on American gluttony, or a critique of our culture. Instead, Thiebaud expresses a sincere sensuality, a communication of pleasure through tactile objects and color. He explains, "[My subject matter] was a genuine sort of experience that came out of my life, particularly the American world in which I was privileged to be. It just seemed to be the most genuine thing which I had done" (W. Thiebaud quoted in Wayne Thiebaud: A Paintings Retrospective, p. 18).