Wally Bill Hedrick (1928 – December 17, 2003)
[Gerald D. Adams, San Francisco Chronicle, Wally Hedrick: Iconoclastic Painter, Sculptor, Wednesday, December 24, 200]
/ref> was a seminal American artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
in the 1950s California counterculture,[Peter Selz and Susan Landauer, Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond, University of California Press, 2006, pg.89.] gallerist, and educator who came to prominence in the early 1960s. Hedrick’s contributions to art include pioneering artworks in psychedelic light art, mechanical kinetic sculpture, junk/assemblage sculpture, Pop Art, and (California) Funk Art. Later in his life, he was a recognized forerunner in Happenings, Conceptual Art, Bad Painting, Neo-Expressionism, and image appropriation. Hedrick was also a key figure in the first important public manifestation of the Beat Generation
The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatio ...
when he helped to organize the Six Gallery Reading
The Six Gallery reading (also known as the ''Gallery Six reading'' or ''Six Angels in the Same Performance'') was an important poetry event that took place on Friday, October 7, 1955, at 3119 Fillmore Street in San Francisco.
History
Conceive ...
, and created the first artistic denunciation of American foreign policy in Vietnam. Wally Hedrick was known as an “idea artist” long before the label “conceptual art” entered the art world, and experimented with innovative use of language in art, at times resorting to puns.[
]
1940s
Wally Hedrick was born in Pasadena, California
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
I ...
. He came out of the military and car culture
Since the start of the twentieth century, the role of cars has become highly important, though controversial. They are used throughout the world and have become the most popular mode of transport in many of the more developed countries. In dev ...
, first glimpsing the liberating promise of San Francisco bohemia in the late 1940s, then moving to the city permanently after seeing combat in the Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
(1950–1953).[Thomas Crow, The Rise of the Sixties: American and European Art in the Age of Dissent (New York, 1996) pg. 27.] Hedrick visited California School of Fine Arts
San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximatel ...
(now the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...
) in 1946. During this period, he joined Progressive Art Workers with David Simpson, John Stanley and others. The Progressive Art Workers was a social club which also functioned as a co-operative through which the group the members were able to exhibit their works. At this time, too, Vesuvio Cafe
Vesuvio Cafe is an historic bar in San Francisco, California, United States. Located at 255 Columbus Avenue, across an alley from City Lights Bookstore, the building was designed by Italian architect Italo Zanolini and finished in 1916.
History
...
in San Francisco's North Beach district hired Hedrick as an action painter to work (i.e. 'make paintings') while a jazz combo performed:
"That was his job. He made these paintings and while he would paint the musicians would play along with him. He would go like this and they would go doodoo doop. It was very popular in North Beach. The guy would make four or five paintings in an evening."
1950s
Hedrick made an early break with the conventions of art training and art-making.[John Natsoulas Gallery, Lyrical Vision Exhibition Catalogue, Davis, CA, 1990, pg. 64.] "There were three directions an artist could take at that time," Hedrick says, "Figuration, Abstract-Expressionism. And this third thing, which was out of the surrealist and Dada tradition."[Source forthcoming.] Hedrick began "working out a form of personalized Dada",[ which led "perhaps to his most influential contribution to the course of Bay Area art: an elaborate kind of punning. The puns not only became titles...but appeared in the painting itself."
Hedrick's mature artistic career began with paintings of popular imagery—American flags, radios, television cabinets and refrigerators—years before the rise of New York Pop Art. ]John Coplans
John Rivers Coplans (24 June 1920 – 21 August 2003) was a British artist, art writer, curator, and museum director. A veteran of World War II and a photographer, he emigrated to the United States in 1960 and had many exhibitions in Europe and ...
included Hedrick's use of popular imagery in 1951 in his timeline of the antecedents to Pop Art. Hedrick "began painting flags in the 1950s, before New York's Jasper Johns did. Soon after, Hedrick -- ever the anti-careerist -- painted many of those flags black to protest the Vietnam War."[
In the early 1950s, ]Vesuvio Cafe
Vesuvio Cafe is an historic bar in San Francisco, California, United States. Located at 255 Columbus Avenue, across an alley from City Lights Bookstore, the building was designed by Italian architect Italo Zanolini and finished in 1916.
History
...
, a popular Beat
Beat, beats or beating may refer to:
Common uses
* Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area
** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols
** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men
* Battery (c ...
hangout, employed Hedrick to sit in the window dressed in full beard, turtleneck, and sandals and create improvisational drawings and paintings. Hedrick's figure, therefore, helped ushered in the Beat lifestyle which ballooned in the later 1950s; by 1958 tourists to San Francisco could take bus tours to view the North Beach ''Beat'' scene.[William T. Lawlor ed., Beat Culture: Lifestyles, Icons and Impact, pg. 309.] Hedrick once confided to his student Jerry Garcia
Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for being the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence ...
that "he and his friends were the ''real'' Beat Generation."[Dennis McNally, A Long Strange Trip, 2002, pg 14.]
At the time, Hedrick was one of the first San Francisco artists in the early 1950s to work almost exclusively with metal.[ He began welding in 1952, and these efforts are considered the first kinetic-junk assemblages. Hedrick made assemblages and sculptures from beer cans, lights, broken radio and television sets, refrigerators, and washing machines he found in junkyards. "What interests me", he said later, is "to take garbage and make it into art, kind of ironic art."][Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Wally Hedrick Interview.] He painted over the surfaces with thick layers of impasto and gesso which incorporated the work into the aesthetic of action painting. He was particularly pleased when he could fix an abandoned appliance sufficiently that at least some piece of it would work and he could turn his assemblages into moving sculptures.[Richard Candida Smith, Utopia and Dissent: Art, Poetry, and Politics in California, University of California Press, 1995, pp 202-203.]
"Some of his most memorable sculptures came from crushing and welding beer cans together, or stacking and welding them...In 1956 he made the first light sculpture that I had ever seen; a fixture that responded to sound. Later on he had the piece on at his house during a Christmas celebration for which Wally put on some Miles and Coltrane on and the sculpture went crazy! I also remember his assemblage Xmas Tree Sculpture, that lit up and danced!"
Although using beer cans was popularized in 1960 by Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...
, Hedrick began the practice in art many years earlier, during the early 1950s.[Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Wally Hedrick Interview."] One of Hedrick's favorite beer can sculptures "was made up of smashed beer cans in a kind of pyramid, as sort of a mountain, so I called it ''American Everest''." The welded beer can sculptures "carried over until -- 1969."
During the 1950s, Hedrick's efforts followed two main paths: painting and sculpture.[ More specifically, between 1952 and 1958,][Smithsonian Archives of American Art: Oral History Interview With Wally Hedrick At His Home, San Geronimo, California, June 10, 1974.] Hedrick begins his kinetic junk assemblages, beer can sculptures and 'Black Painting' series. Not only do Hedrick's junk kinetic beer can sculptures, now all lost or destroyed, possibly rank as the seminal "kinetic junk sculptures...made before Tinguely", but also, Hedrick is one of the first American artists to oppose US intervention in South Vietnam.[Peter Selz and Susan Landauer, ''Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond'', University of California Press, 2006, pg. 40.]
Pre-conceptualist
Some artists at the time considered Hedrick a 'pre-conceptualist': "Wally's mind, I think... is of primary significance in this way. I think he's much more a preconceptualist than perhaps any of the others... the paintings, and the objects that he created are really more expressions of an idea." Indeed, Marcel Duchamp
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
"was one of Wally's greatest gods, always."
Korean War
In 1951, during the Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
, Hedrick was drafted into the United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
against his will, escorted away by US Army MPs without even having the chance to call his parents. "Wally must have been a problem for them, though, because Wally didn't ever do military things quite the way they intended...you told Wally not to do it, that's what he would do. He was stationed in Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
until 1952. During this time, his paintings and assemblages shifted from neo-cubism to metaphysics to political subjects painted in a cartoonish style and dealing particularly with the escalation of the Vietnam War.[
]
Studio 13 Jazz Band
Hedrick joined the ''Studio 13 Jazz Band'' in 1952. The group was founded at the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...
in the late 1940s by two members of the Bay Area figurative painters David Park and Elmer Bischoff.
''Peace'' (1953)
In 1953, one of the earliest paintings of his career as an artist presented a crumpled American flag defaced with the word 'Peace'. Thomas E. Crow
Thomas E. Crow (born 1948) is an American art historian and art critic who is best known for his influential writing on the role of art in modern society and culture. Since 2007, Crow has served as the Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art at the ...
contrasts this work with Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...
’s "anonymous stenciling", drawing attention to the way Hedrick mimics the flamboyant calligraphy found in the decoration of hot-rod cars.[ Crow sees the work in contrast to Johns’s reticence, as a protest aimed against the waste of lives in Korea, and at ]Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
adventurism in general.[ Additionally, ''Peace'' (1953), "demonstrates an intuitive understanding of 'language as symbol' which predates the present postmodern use (of language) by twenty years.][Jamie Brunson, Catalogue Essay, Second Newport Biennial: The Bay Area, October 3 - November 23, 1986, pg. 30.] Hedrick’s pre-pop paintings were included in John Coplan’s historical “Pop Art, USA," the first exhibition to attempt a collective look at the movement in the United States, presented at the Oakland Art Museum during September, 1963. Even after his Pop Art phase, Hedrick continued "his risk-taking forays into regions where, mostly, angels fear to tread".
In the late 1940s he experimented with light.[San Francisco Art Institute Website, People]
Wally Hedrick
. By 1953 he had created a “light machine” that combined keyboard, glass, speakers, and homemade projectors and colored lights that responded to changes in pitch, register, and volume, which was an early precursor of the psychedelic light shows of the '60s[—and years before the light shows of ]Haight-Ashbury
Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the counterculture ...
.
'A genuine beatnik' who helped usher in the Beat Generation
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for being the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence ...
of The Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, country, jazz, bluegrass, blues, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, world music, ...
studied with Wally Hedrick and Elmer Bischoff at San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...
. It was the only school Garcia would ever be proud of attending.[ Hedrick served Garcia as a model not only as a painter but as an expositor of a way of life.][ To Garcia, Hedrick was a genuine beatnik. Hedrick thought Garcia bright and hip, and advised Garcia to attend poetry readings at the North Beach coffee houses, such as the Co-Existence Bagel Shop, the social centre of the Beat community. It was Hedrick who turned the young Garcia on to acoustic blues][ and ]Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.
Of French-Canadian a ...
’s ''On the Road'' and all its attendant attitudes. ''On the Road'' changed Garcia’s life forever.[ “Wally taught me that art is not only something you do, but something you are.”
As "a genuine beatnik" Hedrick was employed at a 'beatnik' bohemian sitting at the bar at ]Vesuvio Cafe
Vesuvio Cafe is an historic bar in San Francisco, California, United States. Located at 255 Columbus Avenue, across an alley from City Lights Bookstore, the building was designed by Italian architect Italo Zanolini and finished in 1916.
History
...
, a famous hangout in San Francisco’s North Beach. Vesuvio Cafe employed Hedrick to sit in the window dressed in full beard, turtleneck, and sandals and create improvisational drawings and paintings. Hedrick's figure, therefore, helped usher in the Beat lifestyle which ballooned in the later 1950s; by 1958 tourists to San Francisco could take bus tours to view the North Beach ''Beat'' scene.
Although Hedrick once confided to Garcia that "he and his friends were the ''real'' Beat Generation",[ the seminal visual artists in the 1950s in San Francisco, including Hedrick, shunned the ‘beatnik’ label. None of them liked being called “Beats” and they especially abhorred the label “Beatniks”, a sobriquet of disparagement coined by San Francisco’s famed columnist ]Herb Caen
Herbert Eugene Caen (; April 3, 1916 February 1, 1997) was a San Francisco humorist and journalist whose daily column of local goings-on and insider gossip, social and political happenings, and offbeat puns and anecdotes—"A continuous love let ...
. As Bruce Conner
Bruce Conner (November 18, 1933 – July 7, 2008) was an American artist who worked with assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography.
Biography
Bruce Conner was born November 18, 1933 in McPherson, Kansas.His well- ...
stated: “I don’t know any artist that would call himself a beat artist…If somebody did, you’d consider him a fake, a fraud running a scam.”[
]
The Six Gallery, happenings, and funk art
"The opening night was the big thing in San Francisco. The opening night and all the artists, mainly artists, went out there and those few people that were into socialites or whatever they were, they went out. And then after that, you could go out there during a weekday and there would be nobody in the gallery. Nobody gave a damn."[Smithsonian Archives of American Art, , Conducted by Paul Karlstrom, November 18, 1974.] -- John Saccaro
Made from what was known as the King Ubu Gallery ("an all poet thing"), in 1954, Hedrick co-founded The Six Gallery in San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
with David Simpson, Hayward King, John Allen Ryan, Deborah Remington
Deborah Remington (June 25, 1930 – April 21, 2010) was an American abstract painter. Her most notable work is characterized as Hard-edge painting abstraction.
She became a part of the San Francisco Bay Area's Beat scene in the 1950s. In 1965 ...
and Jack Spicer
Jack Spicer (January 30, 1925 – August 17, 1965) was an American poet often identified with the San Francisco Renaissance. In 2009, ''My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer'' won the American Book Award for poetry. ...
—and by 1955, had "become the official director". Although "the activities of the "6" were poorly documented", the Six Gallery functioned as an underground art gallery for the members and a meeting place for poets
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
and literati alike. "The Six" was a focal point for countercultural activity during a crucial transition point—unconventional artists were deep underground—partly because no audience encouraged them to emerge, partly because it was safer there.[Rebecca Solnit, ''Mixing It Up: The Six Revisited'', from Lyrical Vision Exhibition Catalogue, John Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, CA, 1990, pg 17.] "The Six" delighted at the chance to defy authority. As the gallery director, Hedrick organized and participated in the spontaneous exhibition/poetry reading/performance events that were the precursors of the 'Happenings' of the 1960s.
"We didn't think of ourselves as a group. The other groups had a very strong group feeling, and they'd sit around and talk about taking over the world, or at least every art department in the Bay Area."
In the wake of the artist collective galleries such as Ubu and Six came galleries run by professionals.[
"Hedrick was instrumental in transforming the cheery satire of Pop Art into the more outrageous bite of funk art." The birth of 'California Funk Art' can be found at the Six Gallery. ]Robert Arneson
Robert Carston Arneson (September 4, 1930 – November 2, 1992) was an American sculptor and professor of ceramics in the Art department at University of California, Davis for nearly three decades.
Early life and education
Robert Carston Arn ...
, the so-called "Father of the Ceramic Funk Art movement". considered Hedrick, "The Godfather of Funk Art".
Hedrick received his B.F.A. in Art from the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...
in 1955.
The Six Gallery reading
"The Six Gallery reading
The Six Gallery reading (also known as the ''Gallery Six reading'' or ''Six Angels in the Same Performance'') was an important poetry event that took place on Friday, October 7, 1955, at 3119 Fillmore Street in San Francisco.
History
Conceive ...
" took place on October 7, 1955, at the Six Gallery, when Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...
, at Hedrick's invitation, read "Howl
Howl most often refers to:
*Howling, an animal vocalization in many canine species
*Howl (poem), a 1956 poem by Allen Ginsberg
Howl may also refer to:
Film
* ''The Howl'', a 1970 Italian film
* ''Howl'' (2010 film), a 2010 American arthouse b ...
" for the first time. The event has become nearly as much a part of the city's mystique as the 1849 Gold Rush or the 1906 earthquake.
Hedrick approached Ginsberg in mid-1955 and asked him to organize a poetry reading at the Six Gallery. At first, Ginsberg refused, but once he’d written a rough draft of "How", he changed his mind. An account of the night can be found in Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.
Of French-Canadian a ...
's novel ''The Dharma Bums
''The Dharma Bums'' is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The basis for the novel's semi-fictional accounts are events occurring years after the events of ''On the Road''. The main characters are the narrator Ray Smith, based on ...
'', where he describes collecting change from each audience member to buy jugs of wine with Hedrick.
Hedrick's 'Six Gallery Reading' was the first important public manifestation of the Beat Generation and helped to herald the West Coast artistic revolution that became known as the San Francisco Renaissance
The term San Francisco Renaissance is used as a global designation for a range of poetic activity centered on San Francisco, which brought it to prominence as a hub of the American poetry avant-garde in the 1950s. However, others (e.g., Alan Watt ...
.
Jay DeFeo
In the late 1950s, San Francisco became the beat poetry capital of the universe, but the visual artists who were part of the same epoch are less celebrated. The three-story building at 2322-24 Fillmore, where Hedrick and Jay DeFeo lived and worked was the unofficial center of the small San Francisco art world in 1955–65. Hedrick met artist Jay DeFeo
Jay DeFeo (March 31, 1929 – November 11, 1989) was a visual artist who first became celebrated in the 1950s as part of the spirited community of Beat artists, musicians, and poets in San Francisco. Best known for her monumental work ''The Rose' ...
, a student at the University of California, Berkeley, and they married in 1954. Jay DeFeo's best-known painting, "The Rose", was made in their Filmore Street apartment, took almost eight years to create and weighs 2,300 pounds, all paid for by her husband, Wally Hedrick.
Kinetic sculpture
''When I arrived in San Francisco in 1957, I remember going to ''The Place'' at North Beach with Michael McClure
Michael McClure (October 20, 1932 – May 4, 2020) was an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he found fame as one of the five poets (including Allen Ginsberg) who read at the famous ...
. There was this assemblage by Wally Hedrick in the window. I think it was part of a stovepipe, there was a doll's head in the vent, and it had wheels; it was like a cart (with a cane on it).''[Smithsonian Archives of American Art]
Bruce Conner Interview
1974. -- Bruce Conner
Bruce Conner (November 18, 1933 – July 7, 2008) was an American artist who worked with assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography.
Biography
Bruce Conner was born November 18, 1933 in McPherson, Kansas.His well- ...
'' 'The Christmas Tree' was supposed to have something to do with playing colors by light, but it was totally random as far as I could tell, just absurd.'' -- Bruce Conner
Bruce Conner (November 18, 1933 – July 7, 2008) was an American artist who worked with assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography.
Biography
Bruce Conner was born November 18, 1933 in McPherson, Kansas.His well- ...
In 1958 one of his mechanical assemblages "attacked" a woman at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...
's annual Christmas party and holiday exhibition. His "Xmas Tree" was "sort of the pinnacle of the kinetic junk sculptures because I'd never attempted anything so complicated", built out of "two radios, two phonographs, flashing lights, electric fans, saw motor--all controlled by timers, hooked so hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
would cycle all these things." One of the record players played "I Hate to See Christmas Come Around". At the opening, which Hedrick refused to attend, he set a timer so that the piece "suddenly began flashing its lights, honking its horns, and playing its records." One woman who was standing next to the piece when it suddenly turned on found her fur coat tangled in it and then received an electrical shock. "It caused quite a sensation not because of its artistic merit, but because it attacked this lady, which I thought was very nice... I wasn't making it as an art thing. I was more interested in making a "thing", and if it attacked people—well I guess I knew it was going to attack...I knew it would probably attack because I laid the trap. So it entertained me; I thought the evening was a success."
''Sixteen Americans''
In 1955, art curator Dorothy Miller came to the West Coast. She included Hedrick in the 1959 ''Sixteen Americans'' show at the Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, NY. Hedrick, knowing full well the importance of being on hand for the opening, gave his plane ticket for the New York museum exhibition and spectacle to friends, rather than participate. It would be 25 years before Hedrick figured prominently again in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, during the Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...
’s, ''Beat Culture and the New America: 1950-1965'' exhibition in 1995.
Not only did Hedrick not attend the 1959 ''Sixteen Americans'' opening at the Museum of Modern Art or even go to see the exhibition, he further distanced himself from the mainstream art world by declaring that artists such as Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...
, Franz Kline
Franz Kline (May 23, 1910 – May 13, 1962) was an American painter. He is associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940s and 1950s. Kline, along with other action painters like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Mot ...
, and Robert Motherwell
Robert Motherwell (January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991) was an American Abstract Expressionism, abstract expressionist Painting, painter, printmaker, and editor of ''The Dada Painters and Poets: an Anthology''. He was one of the youngest of th ...
were too firmly rooted in formal traditions. Instead, Hedrick asserted, “You’ve got to have a deep sense of the human and you have to have a political stance. Painting is not above politics. Anything that has to do with the soul also has to do with the stomach.[
In 1959, again recalling his Asian military experience, Hedrick painted "Anger" (or "]Madame Nhu
Trần Lệ Xuân (22 August 1924 – 24 April 2011), more popularly known in English as Madame Nhu, was the ''de facto'' First Lady of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963. She was the wife of Ngô Đình Nhu, who was the brother and chief advisor ...
’s Bar-B-Q"), the first artistic denunciation of American policy in Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
. ''Anger'', visually equates an act of forceful sexual penetration with corrupt political manipulation. Explosive rage and indignation are symbolized by an atomic cloud serving double duty as the form of male and female genitalia perpetrating the deed."
In 1959, both Hedrick and DeFeo became original members of Bruce Conner
Bruce Conner (November 18, 1933 – July 7, 2008) was an American artist who worked with assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography.
Biography
Bruce Conner was born November 18, 1933 in McPherson, Kansas.His well- ...
's Rat Bastard Protective Association.
1960s
Hedrick and DeFeo's apartment lease at 2322 Fillmore was suddenly terminated (due in part to DeFeo's excesses) toward the end of 1965. Hedrick and DeFeo divorced in 1969.
The ''Black Paintings'' were Hedrick's protest against the Vietnam War.[Rebecca Solnit, San Francisco Chronicle, Inventing San Francisco's art scene: 1950s bohemians altered the world from their lofts in the city, Sunday, January 25, 2004.] Hedrick took "about 50" of his early canvases and painted them black.[ Hedrick's ''Black Paintings'' culminate in 1967 with "War Room". This series "was an idiosyncratic protest, but a passionate one."][
]
War Room
War Room
A command center (often called a war room) is any place that is used to provide centralized command for some purpose.
While frequently considered to be a military facility, these can be used in many other cases by governments or businesses. ...
is "a group of four eleven-by-eleven foot black canvases, each filling a wall of the room"[Peter Selz and Susan Landauer, Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond, University of California Press, 2006, pg. 41.] then arranged "into a square...in the shape of a room...and a door to go in it." The installation has been described as a significant item of Bay Area art history.[ Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle (2003)](_blank)
/ref>
During this time, Hedrick was accused of stealing paintings, including a canvas by Clyfford Still
Clyfford Still (November 30, 1904 – June 23, 1980) was an American painter, and one of the leading figures in the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, who developed a new, powerful approach to painting in the years immediately follo ...
, from the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...
, where he was teaching, then either painting them black or painting his own iconoclastic pictures over them.[
In December 2008, Christopher Miles, art critic for the LA Weekly, nominated the War Room (exhibited at Mara McCarthy's The Box, March 21 - April 26,) for Best Show of the Year (2008).
Also, in December 2008, Walead Beshty, art critic for Artforum Magazine, nominated the War Room (exhibited at Mara McCarthy's The Box, March 21 - April 26) among the most notable Los Angeles exhibitions in 2008.
]
1970s (Wally's Fix-It Shop)
In the early 1970s Hedrick was fired from a teaching post at the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...
,[Thomas Albright, 1985.] after circulating a petition protesting America's presence in Vietnam.
After the dismissal Hedrick began a period of self-imposed artistic exile, devoting most of his time to operating a home repair business (appropriately named, "Wally's Fix-It Shop") in the town of San Geronimo, California
San Geronimo (Spanish: ''San Gerónimo'', meaning " St. Jerome") is a census-designated place (CDP) located in the San Geronimo Valley in Marin County, California in the United States. San Geronimo is bordered by Lagunitas-Forest Knolls to its we ...
. This is an example of the way Hedrick "operates outside the busy highway of contemporary art". The small repair business proved moderately successful. Hedrick's repair skills were first recognized during the Korean War, when he was given the task of fixing radios.
His paintings of the 1970s were mainly crude black and white renditions of old mail order catalogue illustrations. It was also rumored he was the originator of the tag SKIDS which appeared on road signs in Northern California . He also put that in paintings later .
1980s
In the 1980s he shifted to large-scale canvases of rough and aggressive imagery, often sexual."[ From 1988 to his death, Hedrick lived and worked in ]Bodega Bay
Bodega Bay ( es, Bahía Bodega) is a shallow, rocky inlet of the Pacific Ocean on the coast of northern California in the United States. It is approximately across and is located approximately northwest of San Francisco and west of Santa Ros ...
, California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, with his long-time companion, Catherine Conlin.
1990s
Hedrick recycled the Black paintings -- recycling being another recurring theme in his work -- during the Persian Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
, slathering the older black paintings them with new statements in white acrylic paint
Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many ...
like, "So damn, whose sane?".
2000s
After 25 years, ''The War Room'' was brought out of storage to be the centerpiece for the 5th Annual San Francisco International Art Fair in 2003, courtesy of Lincart. The work was described as "the most topical thing on view." In 2003, with new American aggression taking place in the Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...
, Hedrick returned to making all-black paintings. On December 17, 2003, Hedrick died of congestive heart failure
Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...
at his home in Sonoma County
Sonoma County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 488,863. Its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa. It is to the north of Marin County and the south of Mendocino ...
at the age of 75.
Commentary and criticism
"I can remember in about 1959 or '60, the joke going around the art school in the city was, 'A garage man had hauled away Hedrick's paintings and said, 'I don't know what art is.' We'd all laugh like mad, you know, 'cause most of us weren't sympathetic towards Wally Hedrick's art at that time." -- Terry St. John
As early as 1963, John Coplans, the future editor of Artforum Magazine (January 1972–January 1977), would confess the "fashionable world of contemporary painting" (i.e. East Coast) unpleasant reaction to the independent, offensive, 35-year-old Hedrick: "there is little doubt that Hedrick is an original, yet the fashionable world of contemporary painting tends to reject Wally Hedrick's work out of hand." Its no surprise, therefore, “the pathos of Hedrick’s situation was that few not already converted were ever likely to witness Hedrick’s accomplishments."[
Art curator ]Walter Hopps
Walter "Chico" Hopps (May 3, 1932 – March 20, 2005) was an American museum director, gallerist, and curator of contemporary art. Hopps helped bring Los Angeles post-war artists to prominence during the 1960s, and later went on to redefine pract ...
, in his forward to 1985 Hedrick’s Adeline Kent Award exhibition catalogue at the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...
, stated that Hedrick "decided to ignore the ideal of "career", "fame" and "greatness" to which his peers aspired, and settled for a simpler life, uncomplicated by openings and galleries and cocktail parties."
According to ''Artweek'', he never ceased to creatively forged ahead, whereas "too many of the other iconoclasts of the same era have themselves become icons, cranking out homages to their own faded talents.
"Hedrick consistently refused to be interested in what he describes as a "high art look," which he then considered a waste of time and energy." Additionally, the subject matter and motifs of his art often included "rough and aggressive imagery,[ "painted in a fury that gains its edge from the blatant sexual rawness. Thus, Hedrick's "big, tough paintings are strong medicine...and disturbingly enigmatic."
]
Significance and legacy
The cultural historian Rebecca Solnit in her 1990 book, ''The Secret Exhibition: Six Californian Artists'', reasserted Hedrick’s artistic achievements:
It is now possible to say that Hedrick was ahead of his time: the first American to protest the Vietnam War, the artist to paint flags before Jasper Johns painted flags, who made kinetic junk sculpture before Tinguely did. Hedrick was a forerunner of Pop Art, Bad Painting, Neo-Expressionism, and image appropriation. It might be more useful to view Hedrick as an artist who was of his time in a unique way, a maverick whose responses to the world showed it in a different light.
"Maybe the most important thing about Wally is that he could have been so rich and so successful and so famous," said Professor Rollison, a colleague of Hedrick's at The College of Marin
The College of Marin is a public community college in Marin County, California, with two campuses, one in Kentfield, and the second in Novato. It is the only institution operated by the Marin Community College District.
College of Marin has been ...
.
He was described as an underground institution. "Wally and Jay's (DeFeo's) house on Fillmore was the unofficial first stop on the art itinerary of anyone important in the art world, national or international." said Carlos Villa.
Career highlights
Hedrick’s works have been exhibited in galleries and museums including The Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of th ...
, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...
, Whitney Museum
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...
, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...
, and The M. H. de Young Memorial Museum
( ; ; pl. ; ; 1512, from Middle French , literally "my lord") is an honorific title that was used to refer to or address the eldest living brother of the king in the French royal court. It has now become the customary French title of resp ...
. His work resides in public collections which include The Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
, The Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of th ...
, di Rosa, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...
, and The M. H. de Young Memorial Museum
( ; ; pl. ; ; 1512, from Middle French , literally "my lord") is an honorific title that was used to refer to or address the eldest living brother of the king in the French royal court. It has now become the customary French title of resp ...
.
Hedrick taught at the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...
"shortly after graduating (from SFAI). In 1959 he also stopped teaching as a form of protest against the war, and was eventually fired."[ Later, Hedrick taught at San Francisco Academy of Art, ]San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...
, University of California at Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...
, San Jose State University
San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...
and INdian Valley College, at the time a separate school then College of Marin but later incorporated into College of Marin, where he held Professor Emeritus status. His students included Jerry Garcia
Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for being the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence ...
of the Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...
, William Wiley, Robert H. Hudson
Robert H. Hudson (born 1938) is an American visual artist. He is known for his funk art assemblage metal sculptures, but he has also worked in painting and printmaking.
Hudson lives and works in Cotati, Sonoma County, California.
Early life a ...
, William Allen and Mike Henderson.
Group exhibitions
* (1948) Pasadena Art Museum, Annual
* (1953) Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Annual
* (1954, 1957, 1960, 1966) San Francisco Museum of Art, Annual
* (1956) Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1st Biennial
* (1959) Museum of Modern Art, New York, Sixteen Americans
Catalogue
* (1959–61) California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, Winter Invitational
* (1962) San Francisco Museum of Art, Places - A Collaboration of 4 Artists
* (1962) San Francisco Museum of Art, The Art of San Francisco
* (2011) Wally Hedrick and William T. Wiley, The Mayor Gallery, London
* (2012) Renaissance on Fillmore, 1955–1965, curated by Michael Schwager. di Rosa Art Preserve, Napa, California
* (2012
The Historical Box
Curated by Mara McCarthy, Hauser & Wirth
Hauser & Wirth is a Swiss contemporary and modern art gallery.
History
Hauser & Wirth was founded in 1992 in Zurich by Iwan Wirth, Manuela Wirth, and Ursula Hauser, who were joined in 2000 by co-president Marc Payot. In 2020, Ewan Venters was ap ...
, London, Piccadilly, May 23 – July 28
* (2012) Painting, The Box, Los Angeles
* (2013) SIGHT / VISION : The Urban Milieu, Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco
* (2016) Based on a True Story: Highlights from the di Rosa Collection, di Rosa, Napa, October 26, 2016 - May 28, 2019
Monograph
* Gina Dorre (Editor), LG Williams (Author), Kelly Young (Contributor), Rebecca Young Schoenthal (Contributor); Envisioning The Dark Millennium: Wally Hedrick's Black Paintings: 1953 - 2003 (PCP Press 2003 & 2016)
See also
* Wallace Berman
Wallace "Wally" Berman (February 18, 1926 – February 18, 1976) was an American experimental filmmaker, assemblage, and collage artist and a crucial figure in the history of post-war California art.
Personal life and education
Wallace Berman ...
* Dennis Hopper
* Jess Collins
Jess Collins (August 6, 1923 – January 2, 2004), simply known today as Jess, was an American visual artist.
Biography
Jess was born Burgess Franklin Collins in Long Beach, California. He was drafted into the military and worked on the product ...
* War Room (Wally Hedrick)
Footnotes
References
* Albright, Thomas. '' Art in the San Francisco Bay Area 1945-80, An Illustrated History'', published by University of California Press, 1985.
* Albright, Thomas. "Alternative of Mainstream", San Francisco Chronicle, March 26, 1982
* Anderson, Wayne. "American Sculpture in Progress", 1930–1970, New York Graphic Society, 1975, Boston, Massachusetts
* Bahr, Jeff. "Sheldon Show Gives a View of the Bay Area", The Lincoln Star, Lincoln Nebraska, Sept, 20, 1984
* Baker, Kenneth. "Wally Hedrick at Paule Anglim", San Francisco Chronicle, March 8, 1994, p. E3 Benetti, David. San Francisco Examiner, March 4, 1994.
* Baker, Kenneth. "A Bay Area Biennial", L.A. Review, Nov. 9, 1986
* Kenneth Baker, “Mass appeal: Art comes at visitors from all directions at the S.F. International Art Fair”, San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday, January 18, 200
* Boetteger, Suzaan. "Painting from Raunch to Cotton Candy", San Francisco Chronicle, July 1, 1982
* Bruns, Rebecca. "Critics Choice", San Francisco Focus Magazine, May, 1985
* Brunson, Jamie. "Wally Hedrick", Monograph for Catalogue, "2nd Newport Biennial-The Bay Area, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, California, 1986.
* Ann Charters, The Portable Sixties Reader (Penguin Classics), 2002.
* John Coplans
John Rivers Coplans (24 June 1920 – 21 August 2003) was a British artist, art writer, curator, and museum director. A veteran of World War II and a photographer, he emigrated to the United States in 1960 and had many exhibitions in Europe and ...
. "The New Paintings of Common Objects." Artforum, Dec. 1962, p. 26
* John Coplans
John Rivers Coplans (24 June 1920 – 21 August 2003) was a British artist, art writer, curator, and museum director. A veteran of World War II and a photographer, he emigrated to the United States in 1960 and had many exhibitions in Europe and ...
. "Circles of Style on the West Coast", Art in America, June 1964, p. 28
* Thomas E. Crow
Thomas E. Crow (born 1948) is an American art historian and art critic who is best known for his influential writing on the role of art in modern society and culture. Since 2007, Crow has served as the Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art at the ...
, The Rise of the Sixties: American and European Art in the Age of Dissent (New York, 1996)
* Curtis, Cathy. "A Visit from Another World: The Bay", The Orange County Register, Oct.3, 1986.
* Dorre, Gina and LG Williams, "Envisioning The Dark Millennium - Wally Hedrick’s Black Paintings 1953 - 2003", 2005.
* Eggers, Ron. "Bay Area Artists", ''Orange Coast Magazine
''Orange Coast'' is an American lifestyle magazine published for the Orange County, California region. Established in February 1974, ''Orange Coast'' is the oldest continuously published lifestyle magazine in the region. ''Orange Coast'' inclu ...
'', Oct. 14, 1986
* Freid, Alexander. "Artistic Vaudeville and the Beer Can Question", San Francisco Examiner, Sept. 16, 1962, p. 38
* Giles, Gretchen. "Word Play: Artist Wally Hedrick Stretches his Canvases". The Sonoma County Independent, July 25–31, 1996. Volume 84, Number 3.
* Goldman, Leah. "A View to the North", Artweek, Vol. 17, No 37, Nov. 8, 1986
* Greer, Ted. "Wally Hedrick," A Video Produced by Ted Greer Productions, Indian Valley College, Novato, California, 1981
* Greil, Marcus. "The Incredible Disappearing Art", San Francisco Focus, Oct 1991.
* Hammond, Miki. "Diversity Keynotes 12 One-Man Shows from the Bay Area, "The Irvine World News, Oct. 9, 1986.
* Hedrick, Wally. "Art Bank", A Catalogue published by the Artist Association Of the San Francisco Art Institute.
* Hedrick, Wally. "Invisible Painting and Sculpture", Booklet, April 24-June 1, 1969, Richmond Art Center
* Hedrick, Wally. Statement for Catalogue, "Sixteen Americans", published by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, 1959, p. 13
* Hedrick, Wally. Monograph from California School of Fine Arts, Editor; Isabel Hood, Dec. 14, 1956-Jan., 1957
* Hedrick, Wally. Statement for Catalogue, "Sixteen Americans", Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
, New York, NY, 1959, p. 13.
* Hendricks, Mark. "Bay Area Exhibit Paints Diverse Styles, Movements", Daily Nebraskan, Oct. 4, 1984.
* Walter Hopps
Walter "Chico" Hopps (May 3, 1932 – March 20, 2005) was an American museum director, gallerist, and curator of contemporary art. Hopps helped bring Los Angeles post-war artists to prominence during the 1960s, and later went on to redefine pract ...
. Robert Rauschenberg: The Early 50s The Menil Collection. Houston Fine Arts Press. 1991.
* Walter Hopps
Walter "Chico" Hopps (May 3, 1932 – March 20, 2005) was an American museum director, gallerist, and curator of contemporary art. Hopps helped bring Los Angeles post-war artists to prominence during the 1960s, and later went on to redefine pract ...
, "Can't Be Cut to Fit (Too Few Thoughts of the Subject of Wally Hedrick)"
* Hulten, Pontus k. "The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age", Museum Of Modern Art, New York, 1968
* Ikeda, John. "Salute to the Arts", The Orange County Register, Oct. 14, 1986
* Kimmelman, Michael, New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
, ''Art Review: At the Whitney, A Celebration Of Beat Culture (Sandals and All)'', November 10, 1995
* Knight, Christopher, "Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945-1980". Los Angeles Times, Sept 18, 201
* Kyne, Barbara. "Veterans of Bay Area Art". Artweek, December 1999. Volume 30, Number 12.
* Leider, Philip. "The Construction as an Object of Illusion", Artforum, Nov. 1962, p. 40
* Linhares, Phil. Catalogue for "Here and Now: "Bay Area Masterworks from the Di Rosa Collection" exhibit at the Oakland Museum. 1994.
* Lucy Lippard
Lucy Rowland Lippard (born April 14, 1937) is an American writer, art critic, activist, and curator. Lippard was among the first writers to argue for the " dematerialization" at work in conceptual art and was an early champion of feminist art. S ...
. With Contributions by Lawrence Alloway, Nancy Marmer, Nicholas Calas, "Pop Art", published by Fredrick A. Praeger, Inc., New York, 1966, p. 144
* Martin, Fred. Statement for Hedrick/Hinterreiter Catalogue published by the Fine Arts Patrons of Newport, California, May 1967
* Michael McClure
Michael McClure (October 20, 1932 – May 4, 2020) was an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he found fame as one of the five poets (including Allen Ginsberg) who read at the famous ...
. "Sixty-Six Things About the California Assemblage Movement," Artweek, March 12, 1992 Volume 23, Number 10.
* Monte, James. "Polychrome Sculpture", Artforum, November, 1964
* Morehouse, William. Statement for Catalogue of "Funk Daddy", Exhibition, 1968, p. 2
* Philips, Lisa. "Beat Culture and the New America 1950-1965."
* Plagens, Peter. "Sunshine Muse: Contemporary Art of the West Coast", Praeger, 1974
* Polley, E.M. "Some Points of View", Artforum, Jan. 1963, p. 41
* Regan, Kate. "Strong Medicine in Oils", San Francisco Chronicle, April 13, 1985.
* Regan, Kate. "A Tough Sensibility on Canvas", San Francisco Chronicle, 1984.
* Rubin, David. "Wally Hedrick (The Secret Life of Harry FallicFallick Fallick)," Catalogue, Adeline Kent Award Exhibition, 1985.
* San Francisco Art Institute Website, People
Wally Hedrick
* Solnit, Rebecca. Secret Exhibition: Six California Artists of the Cold War Era. City Lights Books, San Francisco, California, 1990.
* Selz, Peter and Susan Landauer, Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond, University of California Press, 2006
* Smith, Dean, Bancroftiana: Newsletter of the Friends of the Bancroft Library, ''DeFeo, Conner papers add to Bancroft’s Beat collection'', Volume 112, Spring 1998.
* Smith, Richard Candida, Utopia and Dissent: Art, Poetry, and Politics in California, University of California Press, 1995.
* Smithsonian Archives of American Art: Oral History Interview With Jay Defeo At Her Home, Larkspur, California, June 3, 1975
* Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Paul Karlstrom, ''"Wally Hedrick Oral History Interview"'', June 10, 197
* Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Oral History Interview with John Humphrey at the San Francisco Museum of Art, June 25, 1974.
* Smithsonian Archives of American Art: Oral History Interview With William T Wiley At His Home, Woodacre, California, October 8, 1997
* Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Oral History Interview Walter Askin in His Studio in Pasadena, California, March 4, 1992
* Solnit, Rebecca. "Icons & Iconoclasts", Artweek, Sept. 6, 1986, vVol. 17, No. 29
* Solnit, Rebecca. "Gallery Paule Anglim," Pacific Sun, Aug. 29, 1985.
* Stiles, Knute. "San Francisco Underground Art in Celebration: 1945-1968", (2nd Edition) 1976, p. 27.
* Stiles, Knute. "Arts of San Francisco, Part 2", Artforum, Nov. 1964, p. 45
* Tarshis, Jerome. "Wally Hedrick at San Francisco Art Institute", Art in America, July, 1985, p. 141
* Tromble, Meredith. "A Conversation with Wally Hedrick". Artweek, October 1996. Volume 27, Number 10.
* Tooker, Dan. Art International, Edited by James Fitzimmons, Oct. 15, 1975, p. 10
* Tuchman, Maurice. The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1980-85, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Abbeville Press, Inc., New York, New York, 1986
* Van Proyen, Mark. "Atypical Prototypes: The Art of Wally Hedrick," Artweek, April 27, 1985, Vol. 16, No. 17, p. 1
* Van Proyen, Mark. "Sight/Vision: The Inward Gaze", Artweek, Oakland, California, Oct. 29, 1983
* Villa, Carlos, ''Remembering Wally Hedrick'', www.stretcher.org/archives
* Ward, Jenna. "The Beat Goes on for Artist Wally Hedrick." On Q, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, July 6, 1997.
* Whitmore, Tammy. "The Brain is as important as the Heart". Bodega Bay Navigator. Saturday, January 15, 2000. Volume 13, Number 26.
* Wilson, William. "The Bay is on the View in Newport", Los Angeles Times/Calendar, Oct. 26, 1986
External links
Estate of Wally Hedrick
* Vernissage.tv
The Historical Box (featuring Wally Hedrick's ''War Room'') curated by Mara McCarthy
Hauser & Wirth, Zürich, November 11, 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hedrick, Wally
1928 births
2003 deaths
Abstract painters
Artists from Pasadena, California
Artists from San Francisco
American pop artists
San Francisco Art Institute faculty
People from Marin County, California