Wayne Thiebaud's 1961 painting *Pie a la Mode* will headline Bonhams' 20th and 21st century sale in New York on May 14, with an estimate of $1.2 million to $1.8 million. The work, which depicts a lone slice of pie with melting ice cream against a stark black background, is making its auction debut after six decades in a private collection. The 25-lot sale also includes works by Willem de Kooning, Alexander Calder, Fernando Botero, Joel Shapiro, and Ernie Barnes.
The sale matters because it tests the market for Thiebaud's work, whose pie paintings have seen record prices—$4 million at Sotheby's in 2011—and because Bonhams' head of 20th and 21st century art, Ralph Taylor, describes the market as stable but lacking fireworks. The auction also highlights Thiebaud's unique position within Pop art: though often grouped with Pop contemporaries like Warhol and Lichtenstein, Thiebaud insisted on realism and depth, making his confections emotionally resonant rather than purely critical of consumerism.