Wally Hedrick

Wally Hedrick (b. 1928 Pasadena, CA—d. 2003 Bodega Bay, CA) was a pivotal figure of the San Francisco Beat Generation. In 1954, he co-founded the legendary Six Gallery in San Francisco. Hedrick conceived and organized an important poetry event at the gallery, held on October 7, 1955, in which Allen Ginsberg publicly read “Howl” for the very first time, heralding the San Francisco Renaissance and West Coast literary revolution. In 1959, Hedrick and his wife, Jay DeFeo, were included in Sixteen Americans at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, alongside Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Rauschenberg and Frank Stella.

In his own art practice, Hedrick rejected the formalism dominating midcentury discourse in favor of personal, social, and political art activism. His paintings hold intense, intricate imagery, with references drawn from art history, popular media, and intimate relationships. Hedrick was the first American artist to protest the Vietnam War and spent decades sacrificing his work as a statement of antiwar sentiment. In the 1950s he began painting over existing pieces in black, thereby withdrawing his contribution to culture, while simultaneously creating monuments of mourning. Hedrick’s work is included in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA; and the de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA; among others.


Exhibitions

Art Basel Paris

Oct 16 – Oct 20, 2024

Press

May 19, 2016
Contemporary Art Review LA
Wally Hedrick at the Box
July 1, 2008
Artforum
Wally Hedrick
April 11, 2008
LA Weekly
Art Around Town: Wally Hedrick: War Room
July 21, 2007
LA Weekly
Sharon Ben-Tal, Wally Hedrick
January 25, 2004
San Francisco Chronicle
Inventing San Francisco’s Art Scene: 1950s Bohemians Altered the World from Their Lofts in the City
July 6, 1997
The Press Democrat
Wally's World: Beat artist Wally Hedrick enjoys Bodega solitude
October 1, 1996
Artweek
A Conversation with Wally Hedrick
June 1, 1990
Arts Magazine
Wally Hedrick
May 1, 1963
Artforum
Wally Hedrick: Offense Intended