**THROUGH JANUARY 3** *Wayne Thiebaud 100: Paintings, Prints, and Drawings* celebrates the artist’s 100th birthday through 100 works. Best known for his tantalizing paintings of desserts, Thiebaud has long been associated with Pop Art, though his range is far more expansive. This exhibition represents the artist’s achievements in all media and through a broad array of subjects, with pieces drawn from the holdings of Thiebaud Family, Thiebaud Foundation, and Crocker Art Museum, many of which, until now, have not been shown publicly. Born November 15, 1920, in Mesa, Arizona, Thiebaud spent most of his childhood in Long Beach, California, and, for a time, in southern Utah. He came to the Sacramento region of California with the United States Army Air Forces in 1942, having been stationed at Mather Field. Following his service, he worked in Los Angeles in the commercial art realm before deciding to pursue a career as a studio artist. In 1949, he enrolled at San José State College (today San José State University), taking both art and education courses. In 1950, he transferred to Sacramento State College (today California State University, Sacramento). While pursuing his master’s degree there, he started teaching college art and art history at Sacramento Junior College (now Sacramento City College). In 1960, Thiebaud accepted a new teaching job at the University of California, Davis. Two years later, the Allan Stone Gallery in New York held a successful exhibition of his still lifes of food and commonplace objects, a watershed moment that launched his career. Not wanting to become pigeonholed as a still-life painter, Thiebaud subsequently focused on depicting people and landscapes. The latter came to include urban San Francisco views, and, subsequently, rural Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta scenes. All the while, he continued to explore the food subjects that made him famous. Based in observation and convincingly executed, Thiebaud’s art looks real and often feels comfortingly familiar, qualities that have made it beloved and led most viewers to describe it as “realist.” At the same time, extended looking evidences its unreality. Thiebaud filters his subjects through his memory, knowledge of art history, and imagination. Most of his finished works are manipulations of reality, capturing as much about what he knows or feels about a subject or place as its physical appearance. For the Crocker, this show continues a tradition of hosting a Thiebaud exhibition every decade since 1951, when the museum held the artist’s first one-person show, *Influences on a Young Painter—Wayne Thiebaud*, which, like the current exhibition, included work in all media. Today, we celebrate the life and career of an artist whose work is beloved not only in California, but internationally.

**Title Sponsor** Marcy Friedman **Presenting Sponsor** Hughey Phillips **Signature Sponsor** Joyce and Jim Teel **Exhibition Sponsors** Murphy Austin Adams Schoenfeld LLP Ted and Melza Barr Susie and Jim Burton Pam and Steve Eggert Sylvia Fitzgerald, ISA AM Melinda and Clement Kong Linda M. Lawrence Mary Lou Stone Julie and Michael Teel Wayne Thiebaud Foundation Western Health Advantage Pamela Heid Zaiss and Conrad Zaiss