i:: I

IN 1968 W ILLI AM T. WILEY FOUND HIMSELF AT a crossroads in his young ca reer. From the What's It beginning, hi s work had been well received. His art was included in group exhibitions in Cali forni a, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, All Mean? and New York. Prominent publica tions took n ote. Less t h an a d ecad e aft er com .p le t in g art school , Wiley had a teaching job he enj oyed, and his work was nati onall y recogni zed. What more could a yo ung artist want? Wiley, however, was not sa ti sfi ed. A year Joann Moser earli er, with hi s wife and two sons, he had spent several months traveli ng around Europe, looking at art. In the fall , be moved with his fa mi ly to the small town of Ringwood, New Jersey, and spent much of his time visiting m u­ seums and galleries in New Yo rk City. Wiley recalled: "A whole lot of material and infor­ mation had sifted ben;veen me and makin g art. That winter in New Jersey I sort of hacked back to the source .. . . I'd go to New York and look at a lot of art. If it made sense to me, okay. If not, okay." 1 Wil ey even had the satisfac­ ti on of seeing one of hi s shown in the I967 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary at the Whitney M useum and pur­ chased by the m useum. Sti ll , for a whi le he made no arc. H e lost confiden ce in his a bili ty as a n a rtist and experienced what New York art critic John Perreault characterized, after St. John of the Cross, as a "kind of dark night of the soul. " In an interview Wiley confided in him: "That was the longest period I spent withom working. Five, six months. That was the firs t time I thought maybe I'm not supposed to be an artist. It was sure bleak at that point. I think it's in there, but it won't come out. Maybe I've got to give up, just stop. It's okay. Now what's going to happen? Well , I still have my teaching job. I'll go back During the next few months, after this break­ and hang on until they sling me out. " 2 through, he went on to crea te a new and signifi­ Working in a modest-sized studio and with cant body of work in various media, but water­ limited materials, Wiley began making clear, color would remain especially important to him. delicate watercolors with a box of paints he Posing the question, "What's It All Mean,' had purcha ed in England. He could focus his in A Sign from the Country Painter (fi g. r), attention on a ma ll area, rather than on the which he created after hi s crisis while still large spaces of abstract expressionist painting living in New Jersey, he presciently acknowl­ or monumental minimali st scuJpture in vogue at edged the public response to much of his work the time. He relied on his fluent drawing ski ll s throughout his long career. Characterized by and could complete a work relatively quickly. contradictions, puns, enigmatic texts, curi- Watercolors were not in fas hi on in the con­ ous juxtapositions, and references as varied as temporary art world, so he could do whatever current events, personal experiences, cartoons, he wanted without the pressure of comparison. a nd moral dil emmas, his art simultaneously The experience was liberati ng. Wiley recollected: intrigued and fr ustrated viewers who could not "When I fina ll y did get back to work, I just re­ read il y understand hi imagery. FIG. 1 all y sim plified the whole problem of making art. After Wi ley returned to California in I kind of let go of any expectations or hopes or 1968, he continued to exhibit acros the A Sign from the Country Painter thoughts of success. I just went back to the idea country and achi eved national recognition 1968 wooden artist's palette of making art because it was something I loved for his distinctive work. By the late r97os, with acrylic, plastic doing, and that was enough. And at that point however, his reputation became more regional. lellers, and pa intbrush, 18¾ x 21½in. I connected with Even today he is considered one of the lead- Private Co llection watercolor. " 3 ing California artists of his generation. His importance and influence, however, extend well beyond the West Coast. Over the s past fifty years, Wiley bas crea ted a / body of work that anticipated such important developments as instal­ lation art, audi ence participation, a revival of interest in drawing, as well as the use of humor and

a broader audience.

--~ --;'J IHI

11 I STUDENT YEARS AND EARLY WORK

William Wiley was born in Bedford, Indiana, in stimulating urban environment. "I was just 1937, and li ved with his family in small towns in in heaven. I loved the city and the changing Texas and Washington during his early years. He atmospheres all the time-rain and fog and attended hi gh school in Rich.land, Washington. sunshine, the bay, and the ocean. School was Interested in drawing, he was encouraged by his exciting-big canvases and people painting art teacher, James McGrath, w hom he considers with oil , lots of oil paint."6 one of bis most important influ ences. McGrath Abstract expressioni sm and Bay Area took hi m to Seattle to meet Mark Tobey, Sam fig urative painting dominated the teaching at Francis, and Morris Graves and see their work. the San Francisco An Institute. Clyfford Still 's They also visited the Asian collection at the formalist approach to abstract Seattle Art Museum. In art classes the students remained a strong influence at the Art Institu te, often used watercolor, inspired by Tobey and even after he left the school for New York in Graves. McGrath in stilled in these youn g art 1950. Surrealism was a strong secondary inter­ students an attitude of openness about how est among many San Francisco artists, since the art co uJ d be made. He encouraged experiments work of Giorgio di Chirico had been shown at with various materials, techniques, and tools and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor introduced students to poetry and music. 4 in 1931, and work by Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, McGrath took a special interest not only in Joan M iro, and Gordon Onslow-Ford was Wiley but also in his two friends Robert Hudson shown later in California. What appea led to and William Allan and helped them obtain the Bay Area artists was not the ideology and scholarships to the San Francisco Art Institute literary rhetoric of European surrea lism, but (then the California School of Fine Arts). When the freedom of expression promoted by au­ Wiley faced a crisis of confidence, his early expe­ tomatism and the use of figurative imagery to rience with McGrath helped him find a path. explore aspects of myth and psychology. 7 Even Wiley began to atten d the San Francisco more important for Wiley's subsequent practice Art Institute in the fa ll of 1956. He studied with was the use of words as images by Anderson, , , Ralph Du Casse, Martin, and several other artists at the school, Nathan Oliveira, and Ralph Putzker, but he as well as th eir irreverent attitudes and per­ had informal contact with other teachers, such sonal idiosyncrasies. as , Jack Jefferson, James Outside school, he saw the work of Bruce Weeks, Fred Martin, and Jeremy Anderson. Connor, Jay Defeo, Wa lly Hedrick, Wa llace Equall y important for him were fe llow students Berman, and Jess (Collins), part of the first Manuel Neri, , Alvin Light, and Bill generation of California assemblage artists who Geis. Allan had preceded Wiley by a year, and assa ulted the boundaries between one art fo rm Hudson joined them the fo llowing year, cement­ and another, between high art and the detritus ing a friendship among the three that has lasted of life and popular culture. Their multimedia to this day. 5 work incorporated found objects and debris Also critical for Wiley was the move to and introduced an element of social protest. San San Francisco, his first experience li ving in a Francisco was the center for artists, writers, and

17 musicians of the Beat movement, whose poetry, work of Oliveira, one of the leading artists films, and performances intrigued the young, Bay Area figurative movement, an outgrow impressionable Wiley. the abstract expressionist tradition. In an ( Wiley bad ready acces to art magazines painting, Flag Song (fig. 2), Wiley incorpoi and books on Zen Buddhism. To supplement his references to everyday life and popular cul scholarship from the Art Institute he worked His choice of color and the red-and-white at the Duncan Vail Art Supply score in San striped motif suggests an American fl ag. A Francisco. Nearby was Paul Eider's bookstore, the sensational success of Jasper Johns's fin which made available the latest art magazines, exhibition at the Leo Costelli Gallery in I '. through which Wiley became familiar with the Wiley saw numerous examples in art mag work of Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, of Johns's use of flags, targets, and alphab and ocher East Coast artists long before he saw his early paintings. it in person. One day he picked up Paul Repps's Flag Song can be read as a figure on a Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, publi shed in r957, which ground with arms outstretched, a white h, introduced him to Zen. One year la ter, D. T. shaped area in the upper torso, and flag 1 Suzuki's Manual of Zen Buddhism was pub­ in place of a head. The painting can also li shed and immediately became popular among read as a top hat with vertical stripes ins American artists. Wiley was already acquainted of a head. More likely it was conceived ai with Asian art and id eas from his trips to the ther; in read, it skirted the bound ary betv Asian Art Museum in Seattle. He knew that abstraction and representation, allowing · Tobey and Graves had incorporated aspects of viewer to interpret it as he or she chose. Asian design and philosophy into their work. W il ey 's talent was recognized early ; The American Academy of Asian Studies in Sa n by r959, he began to recei e awards. In Francisco, where Alan Watts bad taught since r960, before he had even graduated frOJ r951, offered classes and lectures. Wiley never San Francisco Art Institute later that ye;

FI G. 2 studied Zen in a structured way, but its phi­ was given a two-artist show at the San Fn losophy was seminal for him, and he continued Museum of Art (now the San Francisco N Flag Song to explore its possibilities, especia ll y through of Modern Art) w ith Seymour Locks, an 1959 translations of Zen poetry and srories. San who had been teaching at San Fra ncisco oi l on canvas 61 ½ X 65½ in. Franci co in the late r95os and r96os was a College since r947. Although Wiley was s Fin e Arts Muse ums of place of great ferment, and the young Wi lli am for the Young America exhibition at the~ San Francisco, Gift of Charl es Rand Penney, T. Wiley was exposed to more art, music, film, Museum of American Art in r960, he w, 2003.154 and information than he could readily assimilate. satisfied w ith his work. The strong inflt of abstract expressionism at the San Fra1 00 Art Institute became oppressive: "Abst1 Expressionism was revolutionary in its w ; As a student, Wiley painted in a modified ab­ it became a heavy moral trip .... If you d stract expres ioni t style, the dominant mode of line it had to be grounded to God's tongui expression at the Art Institute. He admired the core of the earth to justify putting it then

18 WHAT'S IT AL L MEAN?

In the early 1960s, Wiley created three large man-made forms, a black-and-white-striped paintings on the theme of Columbus Rerouted motif, and triangu lar spaces, which mark the (figs. 3, 4, and 5). He considered these works beginning of a personal vocabulary of form to be a breakthrough: "Suddenly things that I'd that Wiley developed in subsequent years. Just been working with and struggling with became as he called upon free association to create his very clear ... that image came to me all at the compositions and themes, he invited viewers to same time . .. and the painting just went from use their imaginations to give meaning to them. start to finish. " 10 Significantly, he found inspira­ When he received his MFA degree in 1962, tion in an event of his everyday life. Wiley was beginning to attract attention outside While he wa a student at the San Francisco the San Francisco Ba y Area. He was incl uded in Art Institute, Col umbus Avenue, a main thor­ the 1961 and 1962 annual exhibitions at the Art oughfare near the school, was torn up, and traffic Insti tute of Chicago and was awarded the paint­ was rerouted. Every day he attended school he ing prize. He was al o chosen for the Pittsburgh coped with the inconveniences of the massive International Exhibition of Contemporary construction project. The idea of Christopher Painting and Scu/fJture at the Carnegie Institute. ColLUnbus taking another route, or being rerout­ The year Wi ley received his master's degree, ed, sprang to mind, and he wondered what would Richard L. elson hired him to teach art at the have happened if Columbus had sailed in a differ­ University of Ca lifornia, Davis. Together with FIG. 3 ent direction and not landed on Hispaniola. Wayne Thiebaud, , Manuel eri, Instea d of a litera l representation of and , they were considered the Columbus Rerouted # 7 1961 Columbus Aven ue or Christopher Columbus, founding artists of the art department. Peter oil on canvas, two panels Wiley in vented almost carroonlike forms, some­ Saul was hired to teach in the department four each 73 ½ x 68 in. Zane]. Wi ley what reminiscent of the ab tract shapes in the years later. The quality of the art teachers attract­ Photograph by Bruce Damonte paintings of Frank Lobdell. In a ll three versions, ed such outstanding students as Bruce Nauman, he used the diptych format ro create the large David Gilhooley, John Buck, and Deborah size and horizontal proportions of a landscape. Butterfield, and transformed a coll ege formerly (For Columbus Rerouted #2 only half the known for agriculture into one of the leading diptych is shown, since the location of the other art schools of the 1960s and 1970s. half is unknown). There is a sense of a large elson determined to have as great a variety body of water abutting a land mass, although of approaches as possible among the art faculty. there i no specific representation. Some shapes Because the artists were hi red to teach within a resemble serpents and sexual organ , and the few years of each other, there was no hi erarchy. large triangular areas are reminiscent of sa ils. A Thiebaud was the most traditional of the teach­ jagged, lightning-like form suggests that scormy ers, and Wiley, the most experimental, but the weather might have sent Columbus off course. relationship among the faculty members was one The theme of a voyage became important of mutual respect and noncompetitive support. for Wiley and reappeared in future work, as did The atmosphere wa informal, and W il ey was the lightning flash and references to Columbus. known to start singing blues and folk songs and The pictorial elements combine organic and playing his harmonica in the middle of class.

20 WHAT'S IT ALL MEAN? - "' I ,, ' ' FIG. 4

Columbus Rerouted #2 about1960 oil on canvas 68 X ?7 in, David and Jeanne Carlson, Carmel, California

FIG. 5

Columbus Rerouted #3 1962 oil on canvas, two panels: each 71 ¾ x 70½ in. Purchase with support from the National Endowment for the Arts

22 WHAT'S IT ALL MEAN?

Wiley began to experiment more actively w ith a variety of media after be received his advanced degree. T he following year he created sets, props, and costwne fo r the San Francisco Mime Troupe's production of Alfred Jarry's Ubu R oi (fi g. 6) . 11 Wiley interpreted Jarry's Dada creation with grotesquely sexual forms. The cos­ tumes featured oversized breasts, tongues, and testicles, and even the food resembled genitalia. O f all the art movements to w hich W iley was exposed as a student assemblage was prob­ ,',, , ~ ~--.:\: '_~ , ably the most influential. It appealed to his inter­ ,11 ' I :,1 : : : : 1 , ' • est in the humble objects of everyday life and fed 1 1 1 I I his des ire to transform ordinary materials in to '' : work of art. Surprisin g jux taposition created unusual relationships witb poetic pos ibilities . H e liked working w ith m ixed media to create obj ects that were neither painting, , nor FIG. 6 collage, but had elements of each. Assemblage represented a clean break with the seri o usness Pere Ubu (Kai Spiegel) in the San Fra ncisco Mime Troupe's and introspection of a b tract expressionism. production of Alfred Jarry's In one of his fi rst completed assemblages, Ub u Ro i (sets, props, and Enigma D oggy (fig. 7), Wiley roll ed up an ab­ studio in M ill Va lley. It was wooden, a bo L costumes by Wi lliam T. Wiley) 1963 stract painting, wrapped it in tape, and attached eighteen inches tall , and looked like an an black-and-white photograph it with a chain , fea thers, and other materials to a less chair cover ed w ith ugly green linoleur cartoon.l ike painting of a dog vomiting. H e trans­ suggesting it migh t be something co step o formed the cute dog and emphasized the inscruta­ but the steep ang le of the p latform seemec FI G. 7 bili ty of the in1age by the title of the piece. Freed to negate any usefulness (fig. 8). It appear, from the compromises of the marketplace by his more utilitarian tha n decorative, but neitl'. Enigma Doggy 1966 teaching job at Davis and leavened by hi sense W iley nor Na uman could determine its us wood, lea d, canvas, latex, of humor, W iley transgressed the boundaries of Sever al days later, a urnan urged Wiley t< chain, and pa int polite taste. Thi art wa not a precious obj ect to bring it to Davis. W iley p urchased it for fi.J 231/z X 26 X 6 in . Sue Sp roule be sold. H e gave the piece to his friend Bill Allan. cents and gave it to auman, who used it ; footstool in his studio. They ca ll ed it the SI 00 Step, and it became something of a cult obj amo ng the artists at D avis. In 196 5 Wiley took his student and fr iend Bruce W hen W iley met with a group of fr iend Nauman to see an object that had intrigued disc uss an exhibition for the Berkeley Galle him at the M t. Carmel Sa lvage Shop near his a cooperati ve gallery in Sa n Francisco, the

24 WH AT'S IT ALL MEAN? ------_ ----,-,------I I I 11 1 11 1 ' One of the more intriguing variations on the Slant Step that Wiley made was Slant Ste Becomes Rhino/Rhino Becomes Slant Step (fig. 9), with a rhinoceros horn penetrating tl­ cilted p latform. Clearly a phallic symbol, th.f ho rn adds a menacing a peer, especially since everyone ass umed th at a foot should be place on the step. The artists did not knovv it at th time, but their assumption was correct. Afce many years and much research, Wiley di scov ered that the original Slant Step was used at · turn of the twentieth century to elevate one's feet to facilitate bowel movemencs. 16 This co flation of playfulness and danger is a hallmai of Wiley's work, w hether he contemplates su serious subjects as pollution, radiation, tortu and war or simply juxtaposes disparate ele­ ments to create a more abstract statement. Shortl y after the Sla nt Step show, the exhi bition opened at the Universit 12 FIG . 8 decided on a theme based on the Slant Step. Art Museum in Berkeley. The director, Peter Each of the artists made one or more works Selz, explain d that he wished co document ; ANONYMOUS for the 1966 show, and poet William W itherup particular attitude toward art in the Ba y Are The ori gina l "Slant Step" 13 wood, linoleum, and rubber wrote "Slant Chant' for the occasion. The that he had noticed while writing an article 183/s X 15 X 12¼ in. artists made slant seeps from je!l y beans and on West Coast art for the March 1967 issue , New York Society for the bread. There were inflatable slant steps and a Art in America. Borrowing a term from 1ev Preservation of the Slant Step slant step puppet. Orleans blues, he applied "funk" to describe After the pieces were in stalled, W il ey and this attitude: FIG. 9 a few friends returned to the gallery before the opening, took all the pieces down and pil ed them Funk is at the opposite extreme of such man Slant Step Becomes Rhino/ Rhino in a corner, leaving only the origin al Slant Step festations as New York "primary structures" Becomes Slant Step 1966 on display. They left it that way for the show's the " Fetish Fin ish" sc ulpture which prevails i 1 plaster, acrylic, paint, and chain duration, and people poked around the pile. -1 Southern Ca lifornia. Funk art is hot rather th 22 X 12 X 1 2 in . During the exhibition, sculptor Richard Serra cool; it is committed rather than dise ngaged Bonnie Rud er and Ron Wagner stole the Slant Step and took it with him to ew is bizarre rather then formal; it is sens uous; , York. It fo und its way back to California, but frequently it is quite ugly and ungainly. Althc then finally found refuge in up rate ew York usually three-dimensional, it is non-scu lptura under the auspices of the New York Society for any traditional way, and irreverent in attitude the Preservation of the Slant Step. 15 symbolic in content and evocative in fee ling.

26 WHAT'S IT ALL MEAN? lllllXO l,',JllllhU ------

many contemporary nove ls, fi lms, and plays, fun k rhino, or m ore spec ifi ca lly, a cross-section of a art looks at thing s whi ch traditionally we re not rhino horn, for wh.i ch poachers were killing the meant to be looked at. Although neve r precise or animal to the point of extinction. 19 The wedge illu strative, its sub li minal post-Freudian im age ry cut into the circle oozes a pinkish li quid that often suggests eroti c and scatologica l forms or suggests blood. Wiley recalled that the specific relationships; but often when th ese imag es are combinati on of grays and pink alluded to th e exa min ed more close ly, they do not read in a recent production by hi s friend Ronnie Davis tradition al or recogniza ble manner and are open of a pl ay by Samuel Beckett, in w hich the pink 1 to a mu ltiplicity of interpretations. - of the actors' mouths contrasted with the gray stage set. 20 FIG . 10 W il ey was represented in the exhibition Wiley's fascination with the rhino probably by three works, including Slant Step Becomes stems from a story about this endangered spe­ Rhino/Rhino Becomes Slant Step. His work fit cies on the radio, w hich he listened to continu­ Se lz's defi nition of fu nk more closely than the -vlic on ca nvas ously as he worked. R adi o news programs, 7 ½ X 95¼ in. work of m any other artists, who resented being especially those on his local National Public :_. of Ca li forni a, ca tegorized this way. The exhibition was not Radio stati on and KPFA, were his primary ,- -r Muse um an d c Film Archive, well received by the artists wh o were inclu ded, o urce of information o n national and world ct a Richard son, because they felt that Selz had defined a move­ events. 21 The stories dr ifte d in and out of his iam T. Wil ey ment that did not exist. Nonetheless, the word consciousness . Those that captured his atten­ hotog raph by ami n Blackwell tuck and has been used to describe much of ti on often fo und their way into his work, either Bay Area art from the late 1960s and 1970s. as the primary subj ect or as miscellaneous Although some saw the term as denigrating, details. W iley paid tribute to one of the largest others fo un d it useful and descrip ti ve, as when beasts in Africa by asking the viewer to con­ Perreault, who greatl y admired W iley's art, de­ template what the strange image represented, scribed him as a " Metaphysical Funk Monk." 1 w hat the title meant, and what destrnction of At the same time that W il ey experimented this species portended. Beca use the plight of with various approaches to making art, he con­ the white r hi no was not a major issue at that tinued to paint. In the mid-r96os he switched time, the impli ed message of The White Rhino from oil paint to acryli cs, a fi nal move away Injured is secondary to the strangeness of the from the abstract expressionist aestheti c of im age. Its p resentation on a blank background gesturally appli ed o il paint. M oreover, acrylic w ith the title beneath it alludes to the startling dried more quickly than oil, was easier to work di sjuncture of form in surreali st art and to the with, and produced a more impersonal, fla t fin­ paintings of Rene Magritte in particula r. ish, evident in The White Rhino Injured (fig. ro). In this painting the mysterious obj ect was 00 based on an image in an old medical book of an ace bandage and a padded chain used to The 1960s saw a renewed interest in surreal­ apply a tourniquet a bove a severed limb. The ism in the . Artforum published an white circle in the center represents the white entire iss ue devoted to surrea lism in September

29 1966, and the Museum of Modern Art orga­ empirical cause-effect sequence o ut of Real nized the major exhibition Dada, Surrealism, Life- I cannot say, nor do I care. But I know and Their H eritage two year later. M uch I like it. " 24 Shark's Dream was shown in 1967 interest focu ed on Magritte, whose work had in a group exhibition at the Allan Frumkin been shown in a retrospective exhibition at the Gallery in ew Yo rk. The painting remained Walker Art Center in 1962 another retro pec­ m ew York and was later shown in the tive at the Arkansas Art Center two years Whitney Museum's 1967 Annual Exhibition of later, and still another retrospective shown at Contemporary Painting and was p urchased for the Museum of Modern Art in 1965, which the muse um. The response of these reviewers traveled co fo ur additional museums aero s the is typical of many of Wiley's admirers, indeed country, with its fu1a l stop at the University An of the artist himself, w ho does not full y under­ M use um in Berkeley in late 1966.12 stand the imagery, but appreciates its engaging The influence of surrealism is even more implications and it visual energy. evident in a imilar painting from the fo ll ow­ In addition to Magritte, Wil ey was inter­ ing year, Shark's Dream (fig . II). Perreault ested in the work of Marcel Duchamp. Wi ley did described it succinctly: "Wiley's Shark's Dream not study his work in depth, but knew it primar­ is in some sense a key to his methodology il y through reproductions and writings, hence and his concerns. It is a moothly ill usion is­ hi greater fam iliarity with Duchamp's id eas tic painting of a shark-like 'minimal' work than with his o bj ects. Johns and Rauschenberg of sculpture, oozing bl ood. A cartoon-ball oon had revived interest in Duchamp, in large part a fl oating above the 'sculpture' contains a re­ an alternative to abstract expressionism. In 1963 versed view. It is a painting of a work of art Walter Hopps had organized a retrospective ex­ dreaming about itself. " 23 Ea rli er in the articl e, hibi tion of Duchamp at the Pasadena Museum. he observed: "Wiley's art is a bout art." Is it a Intrigued by Duchamp's incorporation surrealist dream image or is he mocking this of everyday materials such as a bicycle wheel surrealist trope? The imaginary sculpture into his art as well as the neo-Dada practice of was proba bly a di carded p iece of wood that mail art, Wiley ini tiated a "dust exchange" in reminded the artist of a shark. In his mind he 1967.25 He wrote to sculptor Martial Westburg, transformed it into a work of art, simultane­ asking him to make a dust relief with dust Fl G. 11 o usly a sc ulpture and a painting. The fuzzy from the Whitney M useum and p lace it in the edges of the thought-balloon emphasize that it M useum of Modern Art. Westburg replied that Shark's Dream is a painted form. he couldn't get the dust, so Wiley made the same 1967 acrylic on canvas Perhap the shark dreams of itself before it request of mai l artist Ray Johnson and encl osed 72 X 84 in. was injured or perhaps the "sculpture" in the dust from his studi o in the enve lope. Johnson Whitney Museum of American Art, New Yo rk, balloon is its mate, as another critic suggested. wrote back and confessed that be had eaten the Purchase, with funds fro m the H e was perplexed by the imagery, and criti­ dust. Wiley then sent a packet of dust from his eysa McMein Purchase Award cized Wiley's paintings as being too derivative, studio to fellow artist Terry Fox in Paris and 68.17 Photograph by but admired the painting nonetheless: "What asked him to coll ect and send dust from the Sheldan C. Col lins this sardonic joke means-'means within an Egypti an section of the Louvre.

30 WHAT'S IT ALL MEAN? ------llll',',11111111

II Another piece that Wiley created that on Dada mai l art. To their s urprise, they yea r, Mona Lisa Wipe Out or "Three \Vishes" received a response from Westermann, w ho (fig. 12), refers to Duchamp. He purcha ed a thought they were putting him on. When he reproduction of the Mona Lisa a nd pinned it first met Westermann, Wiley assured him tha to plywood. He bega n to scrape down the sur­ Ia uman and he highly respected his work. face, layer by la yer, with a piece of ca nvas that Westermann vis ited W il ey's studio, and W il e~ he nailed to the bottom of the composi tion. He saw him in Connecticu t during his stay on th then wrote three wishes, stamped them into East Coast. Both artists showed at the Allan tinfoil, and w rapped them in white bandage Frumkin Gallery, and Westermann came to tape, whi ch he attached to the mouth of the Wil ey's fir st exhibition there. They continuec image with wire. Although this piece recalled to have intermittent contact w ith each other, Duchamp s L.H.0.0.Q (1919), a reproduc­ and Westerma nn 's art remained an importan tion of the Mona Li a on which the artist inspiration for the younger artist. In appre­ drew a beard and moustache, it m ore closely ciation of Westermann, Wi ley sa id: "Cliff's refers to his 1965 work called L.H.0.0.Q vision . .. and mind and methods and craft anc Shaved, a playing card with an image of the dedication ... opinions passion ... heart! So ul!! Mona Lisa shorn of her beard and mou cache, All right there ... war ghosts, environmental w hich he used as an invitation to an exhibi­ concerns, craft ... quality. " 26 tion in ew York. The witty and risque message Duchamp CX) conveyed when the viewer pronounced the initials in French (E lle a chaud au cul, mean­ Throughout the 1960s, Wiley continued to ing "she has a hot a s") was an important experiment with new media and techniques. precedent for Wi_l ey's own epigrammatic titles, such as the painting The Great Blondino written beneath the image in many of his later (Self-Portrait) (fi g. 13) and the related film , works, as well as hi conflati on of high and low The Great Blandino. Wiley became fascinat, art. The "wipe out" aspect of the piece alludes with the story of a nineteenth-century Frenc to Rauschenberg's action in the early 1950s of acrobat named Jean Franc;:ois Gravelet (aka erasing a drawing by W ill em de Kooning and Blondin) whom he read about in an old issue o exhibiting the erased image as his own work National Geographic magazine. One of his mm of art. "Wipe out" is also a term for a fa ll remarkable feats was to push a wheelbarrow or FI G. 12 from a surf board, a nod toward the popular tightrope suspended above Niagara Falls. California sport of surfing. Wiley transmuted the image in the maga· Mono Lisa Wipe Out or Another artist whom W iley admired was zine into The Great Blandino (Se lf- Portrait) "Three Wishes" H. C. Westermann. H e and Nauman wrote a blindfolded man dressed like a comic boo! 1967 paper. wire, canvas, and tape a note to Westermann a bout a p iece by Man hero or jester in stars and stripes, pushing a 24x17 1/s in . Ray. Na uman suggested they inclu de some overloaded wheelbarrow on a tightrope. Th Ya e University Art Gallery, he Janet and Simeon oblong strips of carbon paper in the envelope absurdity of the feat appealed to him, and b Braguin Fund on which to record the note' travel, a va ri ation admired Blondin's madcap spirit, adopting hi1

32 WHAT'S IT AL L MEAN? ------_-_ -- - -..

... 1 I 1 1 I ' ,,11,,:,:, ' IlL.Jillllt:i.... -~ -~

FIG. 1 3 as an aud acious alter ego. The elaborate easel at the lower right inserts the artist into the com­ ,If-Portrait) position, at once the observe r and the observed, 1965 while the written message- "It was wonderful on ca nvas 4 X 84 in . Mom! "- changes the composition into an ab­ ~ - r &. Na ture, surdly oversized postcard from N iagara Fa lls. Californ ia W iley tra nsformed the idea of the paint­ ing into a film made in collabora tion w ith

FIG. 1 4 his fri end the underground filmm aker Robert elson. Wil ey enlisted his brother to portray ,) on buoy Bla ndino (fig. 14), who wanders about dream­ -e filming of in g and fa ntasizin g while being observed by a directed by - Wiley and plainclothes poli ceman known as "The Cop,' ..,ert Ne lson) played by the bea t poet Lou Welch. The nar­ 1965 rati ve is fragmentary, reminiscent of surrea list otograph ack Fulton coll ages by M ax Ernst. Wiley identifi ed w ith Blondin as a perfo rmer and an outsider, and The Great Blondino featmes the fir st of many alter egos he crea ted. In 1963 he had made a short film , Plas tic Haircut, in coll a boration with Nelson, R. G. Davis, Robert Hudson, art. Watercolor appealed to his transgressive and Steven Reich. In 1967 he again co ll a bo­ natme. H e liked the small sca le and intimacy of rated with Nelson to make The Off-Handed the medium. His watercolor technique-black Jape ... & How to Pull It Off and with William outlines fi ll ed in with delicate color-was more All an to make Iron into Wax. akin to coloring book drawings or comics than to traditional watercolor. H e introduced small, 00 jewel-like watercolors, most w ith the text below the image. By painting watercolors, be freed W iley spent the early years of hi s ca reer trying himself from the onus of seeking the al?proval to make sense of all the arr and id eas to which of others. H e regained the self-confi dence to he had been introduced during hi s student begin making art again . During the next few years. H e received a year's grant from the months, he began to create a new body of work. University of Califo rnia at Davis in 1967 and H e also began teaching again. By spring traveled to Europe for the first time. Settling in of 1968, he had accepted a teaching job at the ew Jersey with his fa mily in the fa ll , he com­ School of Visual Arts in New York City. H e muted to Manhattan to visit muse ums, but he had enjoyed teaching at Davis, and word spread had stopped making arr, unsure of his direction. that he was a popul ar teacher as well as an ac­ When he tentatively began painting water­ complished artist. When be fi rst began reach­ colors, W il ey recaptured the joy of makin g ing, he carried over some of the methods he had

35 learned at the Art Institute, but he oon adopted 1960s. His work is simultaneously a painti1 the more open approach he had inherited from sculpture, and an assemblage. The hard-ed: McGrath. Wiley recalled: "I would occasionally letters on one sid e contrast with th e loose!· use as ignments or non-assignments or rea ding or painted colorful letters of the title on the music or any number of things to try and stimu­ verso. The yellow, red, and orange words se late id eas or acti vity. Think up different ways to to hover in front of the blue ones, sugge ti brea k up the thinking and keep it fresh for me, space and shadow. The commercial paint br fres h for them. " 27 dripping primary colors, firmly immobilizt A writer who observed Wiley interact with by a metal brace, refers directly to the acti students said: "Wil ey's gentl eness is impressive. H e painting of Jackson Poll ock. The words ad reminded me of what you sai d about the Eskimos' a narrative element, challenging the formal attitude a bout their children - that they don 't principles of modernism. The outline and c mold them or shape them to some predetermined entation of the palette suggest an abstract hf form; they just smooth off the rough exterior and with the thumb hole resembling an eye. let them reveal themselves from within. " 28 Wil ey made this piece while he was li v In May 1968 he had the fa t solo exhibition in rural New Jersey, hence a "country pain of his new work at the Allan Frumkin Gallery. A but this appell ation also acknowledged hi s Sign from the Country Painter (see fig. r) hung own small -town background and relaxed ~ from two w ires in the exhibition, like a hand­ Francisco mentality, whi ch contrasted drar made sign by a folk artist. A palette cut from a ca ll y with the urban erring of ew York a piece of plywood, it has images on both sid es. the major European cities he had just seen. Bl ack plastic letters hammered into one side contrast to the sophisticated urbanites oft: create the words "WHATS IT ALL MEAN," as ew York art world , Wi ley presented him! much a medi cati on as a questi on. 29 Wiley recalled as an untrained bumpkin. In her review of that he had heard this question from fellow artist exhibition, critic Grace Glueck described h Joseph Raffael, who visited him in ew Jersey. as "a booted, blue-denimed Californian wl The phrase stuck with Wiley and seemed appro­ appearance suggests a riverboat gambler g, priate for a work that ponders the relationship straight. "30 She also noted that many of th between art and life. The title of the piece is also works in the exhibition were about art, a m painted in cursive letters on the verso, and in the theme for Wiley throughout his career. center are large dabs of paint, emphasizing that Another piece that Wiley worked on i1 it is a palette. But who has ever heard of a two­ New Jersey studio and would complete lat sided palette? Is it a free-hanging painting or a California that broke the rules of minimali two-dimensional sculpture? art was The Big Drag (fi g. 15), a good-nat· Wiley's construction broke the rules esta b­ challenge to formalism and its ostensible p lished for minimalist "primary structures," or Teaching earlier in the year at the Uni versi geometric sc ulpture that aspire to be free of nar­ California, Davis, mea nt that Wiley had ha rative or referential content. Minimali st sculp­ commute of several hours twice a week fro ture dominated the ew York art gall eries in the house in Mill Valley. Wi lli am Allan was tea

36 WHAT'S IT ALL MEAN?

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FI G. 15 there as well, and the two of them drove togeth­ for such an extended rime. She then glanced er, sometimes with a model from the Bay Area.3 1 toward the stern and saw blue dolphins play­ ig Drag During one of their commutes, the model told a ing in the Jines roiling behind her. She became 1968 dramatic story that inspired this object. calm and rode out the storm with absolute ,t,al, and She reco unted setting out to sail around equanimity. 72 in. the world in a boat that she and her husband Wiley wrote the narrative on a piece of Eiler had built. Bound for New Zealand from canvas hidden by a rectangular hatch and vis­ California, they were caught in a horrendous ib le only when opened. The large triangular storm, which her husband battled until he form, constructed with plywood, hinges, and was exhausted. He went below to ge t some wooden dowels, refers to the handmade sail­ rest, and she was left to fend for herself on boat or perhaps the sa il s. The title refers to the deck. They had thrown all available lines into lines thrown overboard to provide drag, but the water to act as a drag to slow them down. also to the tedium ("What a big drag!") of the She thought of jumping overboard because commute made bearable by Allan's company it was terrifying to be on the edge of disaster and the model's story.

37 In the Frumkin exhibiti on, Wiley showed The Frumkin exhibition received mixed re­ a sculpture he ca lled Movement to Blackball views. One critic, Gregory Battcock, seemed non­ Vio lence (Homage to Martin. Luther King) (fig. plussed, but intrigued. Focusing on the watercol­ 16). As he was removing black electrician's tape ors and drawings in the show, he wrote, "[T]here fro m a square of latticed Masonite strips, he is something medieval about them, the pictures rolled the black tape into a ball . During this pro­ are too absurd and the captions are utterl y cess, he learned of the assassination of Martin stupid .... The artist possesses a sense of humor Luther King and tra nsformed tbe ball into a that is sometimes macabre and always provoca­ sculpture honoring him. Next to the ball of black tive."33 Writer Dore Ashton referred to Wiley as tape he included a paper that read: "Movement a "grinning diddler" whose written legends at to Black ball Violence (H omage to Martin Luther the bottom of his watercolors are "put-ons." She King) murdered in Memphis, Te1m, April 4, 1968. compared him to Max Ernst and "the true spirit This is a piece in progress, those who wish to of Surrealism, to set the mind's eye adrift in a sea participate may do so by buying black friction of seeming absurdities," judging Wiley's effort tape and adding it to the ball. Those who wish to be less successful than other surrealists.34 to participate but feel they don't have the time Perrault, however, saw in Wiley "an im­ could buy the tape and then bire people in need portant new artist who re-introduced qualities of some work to put the tape on fo r them. After of subjecti vi ty, complexity and wit and makes yo u have added a minimum of 150 fee t leave them viable by the use of new extremes and yo ur name. I would like the process to continue by his resourcefuln ess, his playfulness, his for a year or until the a,miversary of Mr. King's inventi veness. At a time when simplicity is too death. At this time the res ults of the piece will often a disguise for simple-mindedness and has be donated to an appropriate person or place. become not only a cliche, but a dogma, Wiley Sincerely, W illi am T. Wiley 1968."32 dared to be complex. At a time when 'mean­ When the work was shown at the Eugenia ing' is held to be vulgar, W iley dared to create Butler Gallery in Los Angeles in 1969, Wiley works that are all meaning ... contradictory, added two pieces of adhesive tape below his sig­ drea m-like and violently poetic. " 35 nature on the accompanying paper and wrote: In these works and ochers at the Frumkin "The length of the project has been changed. Gallery, W iley established themes and practices T he process will continue until the ball achieves that would characterize his work from that time

FIG. 16 proper proportions. William T. Wiley 1969." fo rward. Combining humble materials, fo und The install ation was accompanied by a music obj ects, personal symbols, enigmatic texts, and Movement to Blackball Violence tape by his fri end Steve Reich, which sounded references to art, popular culture, and current 'Homage to Martin Luther King) like a truncated drum roll. When he showed the events, Wiley created a means of express ion that 1968-2006 black frictio n t ape ball, sculpture in 1999 at the Oakland M useum, he assimilated his cumulative experience of various wooden stool, lead, wax, embellished the black ball with lea d, wax, gold artists and art movements into a distinctive style. gold leaf, fea ther, and leaf, a fea ther, a blackboard, a fa n, and other H e introduced the idea of a work of art that miscellaneous objects 5ox24x24 in. miscellaneous obj ects, and placed it on a stool changed over time and invited audience partici­ Collection of the Artist [see the painting of the obj ect (fi g. 70) ]. pation in the wor~'s evolution.

38 WHAT'S IT ALL MEAN?

RETURN TO EDEN

After an absence of more than a year, W il ey re­ Gallery in San Francisco gave him the sec turned to California in the fa ll of 1968. During to pursue whatever interested him. the summer, he spent several months as a gues t W hat Wiley liked most about teachir artist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He was his interaction wi th the students. Or spent most of that time working on two perfor­ a few years older than th ey were, he rela mances. The first was Over Evident Falls, with to them more as peers and often felt that music by Reich.36 For the second performance, learned as much from them as they did f Parachutes, Dumbbells, and Me: The Space him. He especiall y admired the work of E Opera, he co ll aborated with fe llow instructors Nauman, a graduate student at Davis wh and students at the University of Colorado. shared bi s early background in Indiana, a W iley was glad to return to Cali fornia. He they have remained life long fri ends. had enjoyed traveling around Europe and seeing Wil ey was intrigued by Naurn an's con art in ew York, but he recognized that the mal approach to art. Feeding off each oth1 intense, competitive nature of the ew York art ideas, they came to regard process as 11101 world wa not for h.im. He understood that this important than craft manship and va lued : stimulation was important for some artists, and and temporary works of art as much as la he appreciated the value of what ew York had and permanent ones. T hey hared an inter to offer, both the more formal approach to art music and paradox, as well as a Jove of w that was favored there and the substantial sup­ not only for their look and shape but also port for art among critics and collectors. Shortly their sound and meaning. auman had pl after he returned to California, he mu ed: an important part in the Slant Step projec had even begun to make a film about it. I­ One thing that hit me the fi rst time I was in New called that Wiley was the " trongest influe York was w hen you ran into someone who was had. It was in being rigorous, being hones up for w hatever you we re offe ri ng, th e sens ibility yourself-trying to be clear-taking a m, was honed right up and needed that informa­ position ... Bill was one of the first that ga tion- it was just soaked right up like a sponge. an idea about moral commitment, the wo Then I saw w hy art existed in New York the way being an artist ... that art is an ethic. " 38 it did, th e place it had in the culture, w hy it was a uman also admired the work of rv needed and how much it was needed, and that it Duchamp. He and W il ey were less inter, was like any oth er power in the world. It had its in his individual works than in the ques good and its co rrupt aspects, but it was a total he raised about art: W hat is its function? part of the cosmos, just as everything isY it have ocial value? W hat makes it wort creating and preserving? Duchamp s decl Wiley preferred the informal camaraderie everyday objects, such as a urinal or a b and spontaneous interactions among artists in rack, to be works of arr questi oned whe the Bay Area. His teaching job at Davis pro­ functional objects could be transformed vid ed a steady i11come, and hi s representation art. W iley and Na um an's fascina tion wit by the Frumkin Gallery and the Hansen-Fuller Slant Step and the resulting exhibition w

40 WH AT'S IT ALL MEAN? 1 1i111i11illi~1i111l11l:l\11il1ll1I 1 • :,;::,::t1111 . _ ------· --

FIG. 1 7

887-1968, Die Maker 1968 ,riless steel •amid and phere with -long chain nd Mrs. Ed

directly inspired by D uchamp 's philosophical Wiley explained his thoughts on D uchamp questions. in the catalogue for an exhibition of his ovvn Although he was interested in the work work at the University Art Museum, Berkeley. of Duchamp before he traveled to Europe and "What we can learn from Marcel Duchamp New York, it was not until he spent several is the same message from any artist who has months looking at art in New York that Wiley made his presence manifest in the form of felt he understood Duchamp's concept of art. personal achievement: is essentially that we do "At that point Duchamp started to make sense not have to fo llow his example . ... If you accept and a whole lot of things started fa lli ng into Duchamp's example as an ultimate limit or place. I just fe lt so happy getting my work universe you miss a facet of his existence I deem together. " 39 When Duchamp died in late 1968, essential. His universe is ultimate only in relation Wiley was working on a large metal sculpture to him. We must use his example of mobility and of a ball and chain attached to a pyramid that flexibility as an imperfect but well intentioned he dedicated to Duchamp upon news of his model of existence. " 40 dea th and titled To Marcel Duchamp, r887- 1968, Tool and Die Maker (fig . 17) .

41