Untitled 1962

This untitled work is by William T. Wiley. It's made with ink on paper, a modest pairing of materials that Wiley uses to convey a complex layering of meaning. The artist’s hand is everywhere in this work, as if it were an automatic writing exercise. Doodles and surrealist imagery come into play; an impossible landscape, populated by geometric forms, all rendered in delicate lines. Wiley does not hide the labor involved; in fact, the visible process is a key part of the artwork’s appeal. Although Wiley is celebrated as a fine artist, his sensibility has much in common with the world of craft, in which the evidence of making is always close at hand. In this drawing, Wiley reminds us that art need not be about grand gestures or rare materials. Sometimes, the simplest means can be the most profound.