Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture

Overview

The Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture

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.

Announcement

Teju Cole in Conversation with John Gossage
2026 Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture

Teju Cole is a novelist, essayist, and photographer. He was the photography critic of the New York Times Magazine from 2015 until 2019.

Announcement

Enrique Chagoya
2025 Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture

Thursday, January 30, 2025

Enrique Chagoya is a Mexican-born American painter, printmaker and educator. His prints, drawings, collages and multiples offer critical commentary on the global reach of the United States and its cultural, political and historical tensions with Latin America.

Announcement

Helen Molesworth
2024 Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture

Thursday, January 25, 2024

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

Announcement

Christina Quarles
2023 Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture

Christina Quarles is a painter whose work questions assumptions and beliefs surrounding identity and the human figure.

Announcement

Wangechi Mutu
2022 Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture

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. 

Announcement

Njideka Akunyili Crosby
2021 Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture

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. 

Announcement

Leonardo Drew
2020 Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture

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. 

Announcement

David Salle
2019 Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture

David Salle, a contemporary American painter and essayist, will give the fifth Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture.

Announcement

Aliza Nisenbaum
2018 Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture

Painter Aliza Nisenbaum will join us on Friday, March 9, 2018 as the fourth Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecturer. 

Announcement

Catherine Murphy in Conversation with Karen Wilkin
2017 Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture

Third Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture will feature “Catherine Murphy in Conversation with Karen Wilkin.” 

Announcement

Peter Schjeldahl
2016 Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecturer

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.

Rackstraw Downes, Demolition and Excavation on the Site of the Equitable Life Assurance Society's New Tower at 7th Avenue and 52nd Street, 1983. Oil on canvas, 32 x 36 inches. Courtesy Betty Cuningham Gallery.
Announcement

Rackstraw Downes
2015 Betty Jean and Wayne Thiebaud Endowed Lecture

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.