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Catalog Data

Interviewee:
Wiley, William T., 1937-2021  Search this
Interviewer:
Karlstrom, Paul J  Search this
Subject:
Nauman, Bruce  Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Place of publication, production, or execution:
California
Physical Description:
221 Pages, Transcript
General Note:
Originally recorded on 8 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 15 digital wav files. Duration is 7 hrs., 32 min.
Access Note / Rights:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Summary:
An interview of William T. Wiley conducted 1997 October 8-November 20, by Paul J. Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art, in Woodacre, California.
Wiley discusses the importance of the rural setting of his Marin County studio/home and his corresponding lifestyle to his world view and its reflection in his art. He describes his itinerant youth and experience at the San Francisco Art Institute, and his teaching years at UC Davis, which had attracted a faculty that included Robert Arenson and Wayne Thiebaud. Among the graduate students was Bruce Nauman, who he discusses in length and credited with influencing some of his own ideas at the time. He also acknowledges the influence of the assemblage movement through relationships with George Herms and Bruce Conner.
The final session addressed the communal nature of the Bay Area art scene and the differences between East and West Coast art worlds. The interview ends with a discussion of Wiley's iconography and motifs frequently encountered in his works and how their changing meaning are intended to encourage thoughts on visual and verbal complexities as reflections of shifting perception and experience.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with William T. Wiley, 1997 October 8-November 20. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Funding:
Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
Biography Note:
William T. Wiley (1937-2021) was a painter and helped found the funk art movement. He was also an educator at U.C. Davis. Wiley lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay area.
Language Note:
English .
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Topic:
Painters -- California -- Interviews  Search this
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area  Search this
Funk  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)12900
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)216353
AAA_collcode_wiley97
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_oh_216353