HE SLANT STEP: A BRIEF HISTORY

In 1983 Price Amerson, director of the Richard Nelson Gallery at the University of California, Davis, mounted an exhibition whose subject was one of the most enigmatic object/sculptures ever presented in a contemporary art venue. As the exhibition’s title, “The Slant Step Revisited,” acknowledged, the occasion was not the first time this object had been the focus of display and contemplation. In fact, since its “discovery” in 1965, the Slant Step had already been the subject of two exhibitions, the first in 1966, at the Berkeley Gallery, San Francisco, the second in 1970, at The Art Company, Sacramento. 

Why, you may ask, would a seemingly utilitarian object constructed of plywood and linoleum but with no recognizable function attract the attention of not only three art organizations but become the catalyst for the assembly of works by artists who collectively defined the contemporary visual art world of Northern California in the last half of the 1960s?

Amerson, describing the “Slant Step” in his exhibition’s catalog, comes as close as anyone to capturing its allure as well as the motives behind the Nelson Gallery exhibition:

The progenitor and central character of this exhibition is a linoleum-covered wooden structure called the “Slant Step”… This object - humble in its materials and form but rich in enigma and inherent contradictions – has become the subject of legend and myth speculation and introspection, and private and collective art-making…
…the exhibition is a retrospective tribute to the famous “Step” and to those who have been inspired by it and, in some cases, infected with, what artist Phil Weidman has termed, “Slant Step Fever.” By focusing on the historical importance of the “Slant Step,” it is hoped that its role as a symbol, metaphor, and catalyst for artistic expression can be more fully comprehended and its significance for a crucial period in the development of Northern California art can be adequately viewed. 

The Slant Step was purchased for 50 cents from a Mill Valley thrift shop by William T. Wiley who brought it to U.C., Davis where he was a member of the Art Department faculty. Stored in his student Bruce Nauman’s studio, it became the subject of works in all media by Nauman, Wiley, Bill Allan, Robert Arneson and Peter Saul, among numerous others.

Despite its growing fame the survival of the Slant Step was often in doubt. During the exhibition at the Berkeley Gallery, it was stolen by Richard Serra who took it to New York. Purloined in turn from Serra, it was eventually returned to Nauman but subsequently left in the back of a Chevy truck in Sacramento before being rescued and employed as model for a drawing class at Sac State. It was returned briefly to New York courtesy of the U.S. Mail in 1969 and, on its return to Sacramento, resided with the Sac State Art Department until it re-appeared as the subject of The Art Company exhibition. After a few years in North Highland, CA where it again served as a model for the local High School’s art classes, it was moved to Albuquerque where it was nearly lost forever when Wayne Campbell's car was stolen. Found abandoned by the side of the road, Slant Step was retrieved and transported to New York by Campbell where it was again employed in art classes, this time by Frank Owen at SVA. From 1974 until 1981 it resided in Owen's loft and was much admired by members of the New York art world including Richard Artschwager, Ree Morton, Peter Schjeldahl, Joel Shapiro and Marcia Tucker. Its New York sojourn was followed by further misadventures including a fire that destroyed Owen's loft, prompting a move to Art Schade's New York studio in 1981. There it remained safe in the custody of the Society for the Preservation of the Slant Step (Messrs. Frank Owen, Wayne Campbell and Art Schade, trustees) until 2012, when it entered the collection of the Manetti Schrem Museum, UC, Davis. In 2019 it was yet again featured, this time at the Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento in an exhibition titled “Slant Step Forward.” Now a fourth exhibition, “William T. Wiley and the Slant Step: All Along the Line” opens this January at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, UC, Davis, the successor to the Nelson Gallery where Amerson’s show opened back in 1983.