The American artist Wayne Thiebaud is best known for the paintings of starkly lit confections he has been making since the early 1960s, so his daring recent work may come as a surprise. I first became aware of the new circus series during a visit to his Sacramento studio in March 2017. Among two dozen or so paintings lining opposing walls—mostly the signature landscapes and still lifes—were several small canvases of clowns. I did not take any photos, but from what I recall these were: a lonesome white clown standing against white background; a tiger pinning down a puppet-like prone clown; bust portraits of a clown and a fortune teller; and a painting of a clown behind an American flag–draped podium, his upraised arms forming a “V,” with a billboard-sized portrait inscribed “vote!” in the background. We did not talk about the clown paintings then, and Thiebaud only briefly mentioned that he was “painting clowns these days.” On my two subsequent visits in the spring and summer of 2018, the number of clown pieces grew in geometric progression—the paintings were now supplemented by drawings—so our conversations began to reflect the increasing importance of what was clearly a new body of work.

Over the years, many of Thiebaud’s interviewers have remarked on what a thoughtful and generous interlocutor he is. My experience confirms that opinion. He patiently answered a multitude of questions about the series’s visual and literary sources, which range from an array of