Wally Hedrick

Wally Hedrick
Born
Wally Bill Hedrick

1928
Pasadena, California
Died(2003-12-17)December 17, 2003
Bodega Bay, California
NationalityAmerican
Known forPainting, sculpture, assemblage, pop art, conceptual art, and funk art
Notable workWar Room
MovementFunk art
SpouseJay DeFeo

Wally Bill Hedrick (1928 – December 17, 2003)[1] was a seminal American artist in the 1950s California counterculture,[2] 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 when he helped to organize the Six Gallery Reading, 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.[2]

  1. ^ Gerald D. Adams, San Francisco Chronicle, Wally Hedrick: Iconoclastic Painter, Sculptor, Wednesday, December 24, 2003 [1]
  2. ^ a b Peter Selz and Susan Landauer, Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond, University of California Press, 2006, pg.89.