Washington Museum Exhibits William Wiley

William Wiley (b. 1937) has stood the test of time in the face of changing styles, successive movements, critical theories and passing fashion. His self-deprecating humor and sense of the absurd make his art accessible to even those who do not comprehend his more ambiguous ideas, allusions, narratives, private symbols and layers of meaning.

Puns are fun, and they make more palatable his deadly serious commentary on war, pollution, global warming, racial tension and other threats to contemporary civilization. What's It All Mean: William T. Wiley in Retrospect, the first full-scale look at Wiley's career since 1979, will feature approximately 80 works from the late 1960s to the present, borrowed from public and private collections as well as from the artist.

It will provide a serious overview of Wiley's career while exploring important themes and ideas expressed in his work. Joann Moser, senior curator for graphic arts, is the curator of the exhibition.

After closing in Washington, D.C., the exhibition will travel to the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, California (March 17, 2010 — June 20, 2010).

Generous support for What's It All Mean: William T. Wiley in Retrospect was provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the John and Maxine Belger Family Foundation, Gretchen and John Berggruen, the Charles Cowles Charitable Trust, Sheila Duignan and Mike Wilkins, Electric Works, Sakurako and William Fisher, the Lipman Family Foundation, James and Marsha Mateyka, Arnold and Oriana McKinnon, Rita J. Pynoos, Betty and Jack Schafer, Laura and Joe Sweeney, Roselyne C. Swig, and the Tides Foundation: Art 4 Moore Fund. The exhibition is organized and circulated by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The C.F. Foundation in Atlanta supports the museum's traveling exhibition program, Treasures to Go.

The picture shows William T. Wiley, Portrait of Radon, 1982, watercolor and felt-tipped pen and ink on paper, sheet: 22 1/4 x 29 7/8 in. (56.5 x 75.9 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase. -- www.americanart.si.edu