William T. Wiley, All the Same Now, c.1972. Ink and acrylic on canvas, 45 1/2 x 77 1/2 x 1 inches. Collection Monterey Museum of Art, CA. Image courtesy The Monterey Museum of Art, CA.
Works by William T. Wiley and Robert Arneson are currently on view at the Monterey Museum of Art in You’ve Got to Be Kidding: Humor and the Absurd in California Art.
The exhibition is drawn from the museum’s permanent collection of Funk art by artists from the Bay Area, including Arneson, Clayton Bailey, David Gilhooly, and Wiley, and complemented by works created by forerunners of Funk and contemporary artists engaged with bringing its ethos into the present day. As in ‘All the Same Now,’ both Wiley and Arneson's Funk works are defined by irony and punning, in addition to satirical commentary, sociopolitical critique, and humor. Wiley and Arneson were crucial figures in precipitating the emergence of the overall Bay Area art scene and their Funk works in particular were instrumental in defining what is seen as a ‘Californian’ attitude, purportedly counter to that of the East Coast intelligentsia.
The exhibition will be on view through July 30, 2023.