Biography
Who is Twinka Thiebaud?
Early life and background
Twinka Thiebaud was born in Los Angeles, California, on December 9, 1945. She was the first-born child of the American painter Wayne Thiebaud and Patricia Patterson, who wed in 1943. During her childhood, she lived in Los Angeles, New York City, and Sacramento, California, where her father taught at the University of California, Davis. After her parents divorced in 1958, she moved with her mother and sisters to Marin County, California. There, she attended Redwood High School. Her younger brother, Paul Thiebaud, later became an art dealer and gallerist.
Seeking to pursue acting, Twinka eventually returned to Los Angeles from Marin County. For several years, she resided with the aging novelist Henry Miller in his Pacific Palisades home. She acted as his cook and caretaker and was present with him on the day he died. While living with Miller, she kept a notebook of his evening stories. This led to her publishing the book Reflections in 1981 through Capra Press. Decades later, she published an extensive rewrite titled What Doncha Know About Henry Miller in February 2011.
Modeling and artistic career
Alongside her time with Henry Miller, Twinka worked extensively as an artist's model. She became a favorite subject for well-known photographers including Robert Heinecken, Judy Dater, Mary Ellen Mark, Arnold Newman, Lucien Clergue, Eikoh Hosoe, Ralph Gibson, and Arthur Tress. Many images from this period are held in international private collections and have been displayed in galleries and museums worldwide, such as the Uffizi in Florence and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She also posed for her father throughout her life, appearing in works such as Supine Woman, a canvas painted when she was eighteen.
One well-known photograph featuring Twinka was taken by Judy Dater at Yosemite, depicting Imogen and Twinka. It became one of the most recognizable images by an American photographer and was the first adult full-frontal nude photograph published in Life magazine, appearing in a 1976 Bicentennial Special Issue. Another photograph of Twinka by Dater served as the cover image for the 1973 book The Woman's Eye, which was devoted to women photographers. Later in life, Twinka relocated to Portland, Oregon, in 1993, where she worked as a painter and for the on-campus food service company at Reed College. In June 2022, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California, hosted an exhibit titled Twinka Thiebaud and the Art of the Pose, featuring paintings, drawings, and photographs spanning more than fifty years of her modeling work.
Birthday and age
Twinka Thiebaud was born on December 9, 1945, which makes Twinka 80 years old today. That birthday falls under the Sagittarius sign. Twinka shares the date with 50 other famous people.
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