The Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture honors the
Thiebauds’ longtime commitment to educating the eye and hand
along with the mind by presenting practicing artists, along with
critics, curators, writers, historians, and museum professionals.
Along with the Visiting Artist Lecture
Series and The California
Studio: Manetti Shrem Artist Residencies, the Thiebaud
Lecture is an essential experience for students pursuing the
M.F.A. degree in studio art.
Helen Molesworth is a writer and a curator based in Los Angeles.
She is the host of David Zwirner’s Dialogues podcast and the
writer and host of the podcast, Death of an Artist. The recipient
of the 2011 Bard Center for Curatorial Studies Award for
Curatorial Excellence
Wangechi Mutu, whose works are all rooted in her investigations
and advocacy around human representation, is the 2022 Betty Jean
and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture guest artist.
Njideka Akunyili
Crosby, whose art negotiates the cultural terrain between her
adopted home in America and her native Nigeria in collage and
photo transfer-based paintings, will give the
seventh Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture. This
year’s lecture celebrates Wayne Thiebaud’s centennial
birthday.
Leonardo Drew, known for creating reflective abstract
sculptural works that play upon the dystopic tension between
order and chaos, will give the sixth Betty Jean
and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture.
Peter Schjeldahlm, staff writer at The New Yorker and
magazine’s art critic, will be the Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud
Endowed Lecturer for 2016. He came to the magazine from The
Village Voice, where he was the art critic from 1990 to
1998.
Painter Rackstraw Downes will give the inaugural Betty Jean and
Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture at UC Davis on May 6, 2015. He
will talk about about painting from observation on site in the
contemporary environment. He will also be visiting the studios of
current MFA candidates in Art Studio.