Oral history interview with William T. Wiley, 1997 October 8-November 20

Object Details

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

Data Source

Archives of American Art

Record number

(DSI-AAA_CollID)12900

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)216353

AAA_collcode_wiley97

interviewee

Wiley, William T., 1937-2021

interviewer

Karlstrom, Paul J

Subject

Nauman, Bruce

Type

Sound recordings

Interviews

Topic

Painters -- California -- Interviews

Art, Modern -- 20th century -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area

Funk

Record ID

AAADCD_oh_216353

Usage

Usage conditions apply