People - Thiebaud's experience of the Manhattan Art Scene in the 50s

Maria Baibakova is 23, the daughter of a millionaire, and about to put her mark on the Russian contemporary-art world. Her Baibakov Art Projects has started work with an exhibition of young artists at a  Moscow chocolate factory across from the Kremlin. Gagosian Gallery opened the space in September with a one-month display of postwar art. Baibakova's show features the PG Group, which on Dec. 10 won a Kandinsky Prize for Best Media Project.

Tycoon's Daughter Stages Moscow Art Show in Chocolate Factory (Bloomberg)

In 1956, Wayne Thiebaud took a year away from teaching at Sacramento Junior College (now Sacramento City College) and moved to Manhattan to explore the art scene he had read so much about. He found it easy to infiltrate the small crowd of now-famous names, both artists and critics. "It was a place and time when the art world was really interdependent," Thiebaud said in a phone conversation, "and nobody made much money."

Thiebaud reflects on visiting NY in '50s (San Francisco Chronicle)