WILLIAM T. WILEY, (1937-2021)

Stark Lusters Last Stand in Blind Consideration, 1972

Stark Lusters Last Stand in Blind Consideration, 1972

signed with the artist's initial 'W' (lower right); titled 'Stark Lusters Last Stand in Blind Consideration' (upper right); dated '9/72' (upper left)
acrylic, charcoal and ink on unprimed canvas mounted on unprimed canvas

44 1/2 x 85 1/2 in.
113 x 217.2 cm.

Provenance
Private Collection
Sale: Doyle, New York, European, American, Modern & Contemporary Art, 8 May 2013, lot 239
Acquired directly from the above sale by the present owner

Born in Bedford, Indiana in 1937, William T. Wiley was an establishing member of the San Francisco Bay Area Art Scene and the recognized founder of the Funk Art Movement. A celebrated community member and educator, Wiley held his first solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1960 at the age of 23, while still working towards his undergraduate degree. Promptly after completing his own degree, Wiley was hired at UC Davis where his colleagues included Wayne Thiebaud and Roy De Forest.

Though Wiley worked across sculpture, painting, drawing and other mediums, he is well known for his watercolors which artfully engage the personal and the political and are punctuated with an air of humor. In addition to his watercolor practice, Wiley frequently used found objects to create assemblages of materials that emphasized the vernacular motifs within each work. In his childhood, Wiley's family frequently traveled and moved which contributed to the unincumbered view of America that eventually became a strong thematic through line in his work. Manifesting frequently in maps and letters, Wiley whimsically captured both the transience and connectedness of our lived experiences.

William T. Wiley has nearly 50 works in the permanent collection of SFMOMA. His work is also held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Winner of many awards, Wiley was the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship Award in 2004 Wiley's 2009 career retrospective What's It All Mean: William T. Wiley in Retrospect was held at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery, Washington D.C.