Robert Abrams

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Thirteen round cakes sit in three rows, each on a disk-like stand supported on a thin rod, in this horizontal painting. We look slightly down onto the cakes, which only barely overlap. All of the cakes are round except for one, which has been cut in half so we see the four layers of yellow cake and chocolate frosting inside. The top of that cake is white. All of the other cakes are unique except for two angel food cakes at the center, which are slightly different heights. Most of the other cakes have white or brown frosting, except for a pink cake at the front right. That cake has white swags piped on the sides and a pink rose on the top. Next to it is a cake topped with yellow, perhaps lemon curd. The other two cakes in the front row have a white swirl against dark brown frosting, and the fourth, near the left egde, is topped with a single red cherry. Half of a low, pale orange cake is cut off by the left edge of the canvas in the middle row. Each cake stand casts a pale gray shadow against the light, arctic-blue counter. The paint is thickly applied throughout, and the outlines around the cakes, plates, and rods are streaked with rainbow colors. The artist signed the work by incising his name and the date into the wet white paint in the top right corner: “Thiebaud 1963.”
Wayne Thiebaud, Cakes, 1963, oil on canvas, Gift in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art from the Collectors Committee, the 50th Anniversary Gift Committee, and The Circle, with Additional Support from the Abrams Family in Memory of Harry N. Abrams, 1991.1.1

Cakes

Wayne Thiebaud · 1963 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1991.1.1

A blond, buxom woman with peach-colored skin wears a leopard-print bathing suit against an abstracted, colorful garden setting in this vertical painting. The woman’s features and body are outlined in dark red and minimally shaded, giving it a cartoonish look. The woman’s body is angled to our right, and she looks off in that direction with hooded hazel eyes lined with blue shadow. She has a button nose, and her full, hot-pink lips are closed. A line at the side of her face suggests high cheekbones. Blond bangs create a wave across her forehead, and her hair falls to her shoulders. The bathing suit has narrow straps over the shoulders that swell to cover about half of her full breasts. The bands continue down her torso and meet the brief-like bottom. She holds a plan by its stem with one hand, and we can see one red-painted fingernail. Her other arm disappears on the far side of her body. Bright green leaves and a red, long-petaled flower blossom grow between us and her legs. Bands of mostly flat color behind her create the impression of grass in acid green, taller brush in midnight blue, distant trees in violet-purple behind her shoulders, and a higher level of canopies silhouetted in black against a scarlet-red sky.
Mel Ramos, Wild Girl, 1963, oil on canvas, Gift of Abrams Family Collection, 2010.118.1

Wild Girl

Mel Ramos · 1963 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2010.118.1