Today I enjoyed the latest survey show at the Legion of Honor—Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art. The exhibit is a satisfying follow up to the comprehensive showing of Mary Cassatt’s work that closed in January. Both of these exhibitions have been well curated and designed.
An unexpected find today was Mr. Thiebaud’s Electric Chair of 1957. He spent time in New York in 1956 and 1957. It is surmised that he would have seen Franz Kline’s Bridge of 1955. The painting is an example of the influence of abstract art. The painting is singular, a simple color scheme of red and degrees of black. The painting is serious. When I rounded a corner in the gallery, it grabbed me immediately.
The opening of the exhibition features a film followed by examples from Thiebaud’s art collection. Noted throughout the show is the surprise Mr. Thiebaud felt when learning that abstract painters were students of art—that they enjoyed examples from history. When I lived in New York I learned this very same information. Coming from California perhaps we were schooled to think otherwise—not sure.
Why do I like the Electric Chair—why does it seem special?
One—the color red. I do not recall a painting by Thiebaud with such a strong choice of red. Two—the marriage of the constructed elements to the frame of the rectangle. Three—the limited range of tones, warm in temperature. Four—the graphic flatness of the painting with flat brushwork. Five—the energy of the strokes depicting the features of the chair. The wires and such taper to an element in the lower left that is painted with great simplicity. Six—the story is told with economy, traces of a pencil line are visible in an area of bare canvas. Seven—included in the center portion of the canvas above the central axis is a single red drip. A lovely drip that has shrunken and crinkles a bit into itself. There are more drips elsewhere yet not as royal. Eight—at the top is the arc of a wire that brings the eye up and back down. Lastly—the vertical and horizontal structure of the chair, the brown-red-blackness of the form, the force of it.
There are many wonderful paintings in the show, the sombre quality of Electric Chair spoke to me on this Sunday with courage and unexpected sensitivity.
By Drew Burgess
Drew Burgess is an art professor at the College of Alameda of the Peralta Community College District of California.
Cite this page: Drew Burgess, “Electric Chair by Wayne Thiebaud”, March 23, 2025, https://www.drewburgess.art/museum-visits/2025/3/23/electric-chair-by-wayne-thiebaud
Wayne Thiebaud, Electric Chair, 1968, oil on canvas, Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art, The Legion of Honor, FAMSF, https://www.famsf.org/exhibitions/wayne-thiebaud
Wayne Thiebaud, Electric Chair, 1968, oil on canvas, exhibition photograph from Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art, The Legion of Honor, FAMSF, https://www.famsf.org/exhibitions/wayne-thiebaud
Wayne Thiebaud, Electric Chair, 1968, oil on canvas, photograph of wall placard from Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art, The Legion of Honor, FAMSF, https://www.famsf.org/exhibitions/wayne-thiebaud