Skip to main content Skip to main navigation
heart-solid My Visit Donate
Home
Press Enter to activate a submenu, down arrow to access the items and Escape to close the submenu.
    • Overview
    • Museums and Zoo
    • Entry and Guidelines
    • Maps and Brochures
    • Dine and Shop
    • Accessibility
    • Visiting with Kids
    • Group Visits
    • Overview
    • Exhibitions
    • Online Events
    • All Events
    • IMAX & Planetarium
    • Overview
    • Topics
    • Collections
    • Research Resources
    • Podcasts
    • Stories
    • Overview
    • For Caregivers
    • For Educators
    • For Students
    • For Academics
    • For Lifelong Learners
    • Overview
    • Become a Member
    • Renew Membership
    • Make a Gift
    • Volunteer
    • Overview
    • Our Organization
    • Our Leadership
    • Reports and Plans
    • Newsdesk
heart-solid My Visit Donate

Oral history interview with William T. Wiley

Archives of American Art

Oral history interview with William T. Wiley, 1997 October 8-November 20, Transcript
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
Finding aid
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .

Object Details

sova.aaa.wiley97
GUID
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw95d9bf940-efeb-4367-b665-6e08fa8be1ac
General
Originally recorded on 8 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 15 digital wav files. Duration is 7 hrs., 32 min.
Interviewee
Wiley, William T., 1937-2021
Interviewer
Karlstrom, Paul J.
Names
Nauman, Bruce, 1941-
Topic
Painters -- California -- Interviews
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area
Funk
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.
Interviewee
Wiley, William T., 1937-2021
Interviewer
Karlstrom, Paul J.
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.
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.
Extent
221 Pages (Transcript)
Date
1997 October 8-November 20
Archival Repository
Archives of American Art
Identifier
AAA.wiley97
Type
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Genre/Form
Sound recordings
Interviews
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.
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.
Restrictions
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
AAA.wiley97
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw95d9bf940-efeb-4367-b665-6e08fa8be1ac
AAA.wiley97
AAA
Record ID
ebl-1596387715877-1596387715879-0
arrow-up Back to top
Home
  • Facebook facebook
  • Instagram instagram
  • LinkedIn linkedin
  • YouTube youtube

  • Contact Us
  • Job Opportunities
  • Get Involved
  • Inspector General
  • Records Requests
  • Accessibility
  • EEO & Small Business
  • Shop Online
  • Host Your Event
  • Press Room
  • Privacy
  • Terms of Use