Wayne Thiebaud is best known for his paintings of whimsical everyday objects and scenes, such as gumball machines, bakeshop windows, and childhood toys set against light backgrounds. During the 1960s, while many artists began to lean toward or emulate commercial means of production, Thiebaud opted to retain a painterly quality to his explorations of American nostalgia. Images such as Yo Yos utilize heavy tactile brushstrokes, a lush color palette, and repetition within the composition. About his use of multiple similar objects, Thiebaud has said, “If you look closely, they look all alike at first, until you examine them. Each one is curiously different in some minor way. That orchestrating principle you find all though the tradition of history painting, because its an obvious design concept. It’s like a drumbeat, you know, slight variations, repetitions, rhythms and so on.”

Label from For the Love of Things: Still Life, February 27–May 29, 2016