War Room (Wally Hedrick)

The War Room (1967/68-2002), by Wally Hedrick (1928-2003), consists of eight canvases approximately 5. 5’ wide and 11’ tall, all painted a deep black. Hedrick referred to these canvases as “wounded veterans.” These canvases are bolted together to create a freestanding square room that could be entered via a small door in one of the canvases, thus creating architectural painting. The black painted surfaces of the canvases face inward and the backs of the canvases face outward. [http://theboxla.com/exhibitions/index.html]

The War Room is an 'environmental' painting where the viewer enters a small enclosure of painted blackness. The viewer is left to consider the encompassing darkness and contemplate the vacuity that this space creates. Hedrick refused to ignore the war and instead created a work of cultural and political significance. After the Vietnam War ended he repainted these canvases black in protest of the Gulf War in 1992 and the Iraqi war in 2002. [http://theboxla.com/exhibitions/index.html]

During this time, Hedrick was accused of stealing paintings, including a canvas by Clyfford Still, from the San Francisco Art Institute, where he was teaching, then either painting them black or painting his own iconoclastic pictures over them.Peter Selz and Susan Landauer, Art of Engagement: Visual Politics in California and Beyond, UC Press, 2006, pg.89. ]

Importance

The "War Room", a significant item of Bay Area art history. [ Kenneth Baker, San Francisco Chronicle (2003) [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/01/18/DD129080.DTL&hw=Wally+Hedrick&sn=010&sc=160] ]

Influence and Legacy

The War Room is an acknowledged reference in another recent art historical landmark, House Where The Bottom Fell Out (2007), by LG Williams.

Literature

" Wally Hedrick: The Dark Millennium, by Gina Dorré and LG Williams, is an in-depth account of The War Room and Black Painting Series between 1953 - 2003.

Exhibition History

* 2008, the box, Los Angeles, CA, March 21 - April 26. Curated by Mara McCarthy. [http://theboxla.com/exhibitions/index.html]
* 2003, University Art Gallery, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA, Feb. 20 - March 16, Curated by Michael Schwager.
* 1992, San Francisco International Art Fair, January 18 -20, Curated by LG Williams. [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/01/18/DD129080.DTL&type=printable]

Additional Resources

* " [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sJQYIWotnM Wally Hedrick: My Last Photos Of Wally] " (2007). A short documentary of the last photographs of Wally Hedrick taken by his friend LG Williams.

See also

* Wally Hedrick
* Bruce Conner
* Jay DeFeo
* Allen Ginsberg
* Beat Generation
* Rat Bastard Protective Association
* LG Williams and House Where The Bottom Fell Out
* Six Gallery reading

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.wallyhedrick.com Estate of Wally Hedrick]

References

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