About the work

William T. Wiley’s plea to environmentalism, depicting two totemic items: a stave and a torch-like wand, both heavily enriched with the written word, a heart, and an eye. Since the mid-1960s Wiley has laid bare the lies and deceptions behind environmental catastrophes and other issues of the world.

This is a deeply impressed intaglio print, restrained to the top half of a field of beautiful Arches paper.

A second-state impression is held by the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco.

An early acquisition by the Principal Financial Group, a longstanding supporter of the arts which created a corporate art collection in 1985. Bearing the property sticker of the Principal on the bottom edge of the frame.

Attributes	Value
Medium	Etching
Signing, Dating, and Titling	Signed in the plate
Framing	Custom framed and matted using conservation materials
Condition	Fine Condition
Date	1950-1960

Medium:

Color drypoint etching

Printer:

Teaberry Press, San Francisco.

Date:

1955

Signature:

Signed by the artist in pencil, en recto lower right with date (“86”). Editioned, in pencil, en recto lower left. Bearing the Teaberry Press blind stamp en recto lower right

Edition:

This is the ninth of the edition of 13.

Framing:

Framed in an important solid brass Kulicke-type frame and repackaged behind UV-filtering Plexiglass. All conservation and archival materials.

Condition:

Fine condition. Modest rippling of paper, stray handling marks.

Framed Size:

16.75 in. (h) x 25.25 in. (w) x 1.25 in. (d)

Provenance:

Purchased December 18, 1986, directly from Fuller Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco, by the corporate collection of the Principal Financial Group before sale to current owner.