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Archives of American Art
Oral history interview with William T. Wiley
Summary
- Collection ID:
- AAA.wiley97
- Creators:
-
Wiley, William T., 1937-2021Karlstrom, Paul J.
- Dates:
-
1997 October 8-November 20
- Languages:
-
English.
- Physical Description:
-
221 PagesTranscript
- Repository:
Scope and Contents
Scope and Contents
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.
Scope and Contents
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.
Biographical / Historical
Biographical / Historical
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.
Administration
Sponsor
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.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
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.
Digital Content
Using the Collection
Conditions Governing Access
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
More Information
General
General
Originally recorded on 8 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 15 digital wav files. Duration is 7 hrs., 32 min.
Keywords
| Keyword Terms | Keyword Types | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Painters -- California -- Interviews | Topical | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Art, Modern -- 20th century -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area | Topical | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Sound recordings | Genre Form | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Interviews | Genre Form | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Funk | Topical | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
| Nauman, Bruce, 1941- | Personal Name | Search Smithsonian Collections | Search ArchiveGrid |
Archives of American Art
750 9th Street, NW
Victor Building, Suite 2200
Washington, D.C. 20001
https://www.aaa.si.edu/services/questions
