Wesley Willis Art

The Dan Ryan Expressway, Past 43rd Toward Root St., 1989

OK, here's a beauty. Again, from Shane Swank. Obtained by Shane from Wesley in trade or for money in 1989. There's no denying that this was done in plain sight of the expressway. The detail is classic Wesley Willis-- look at the shapes of the buses, the markings on the buses and trucks.

What makes this so great, however, is the markings on the lower left-hand corner. It looks like two taxis, but I can't be sure. Anyway, the text of the first one says, "Dear. Richard Nixon: Zark Off! Get out of town!!! Bail Out!! Get Lost!!!"

The next one says, " Zark Off!! Dear Nixon: Zark Off!! Take your goddam Watergate Tapes & Stick them up your Pole!! Shut your 1st-Class Jive Turkey Ass Up. Get the Show On The Road." Good stuff.

We see some other important, early things here, way before his music career: an obsession with brand. He renders the CTA, More and Merit cigarettes, and truck brands with intense accuracy, just as he would later with slogans at the ends of songs.

It's the Shoreline, 1996

Here's one from the collection of Chicago artist Shane Swank. It should be familiar-- there are a boatload of these around. He thinks he got it in trade for another piece while he ran Poop Studios in the Flat Iron Building in Chicago. CopyMax, a favorite Wesley hangout, was in this building as well.

It seems that around this time Wesley started doing drawings from memory, and this was a favorite subject. Up to this time, his drawings seem to have all been done in the open air, right in front of the subject.

Wesley Willis Art Cataloguing Project

Tamara Smith (TSmithatheartlandalliancedotorg) has started a cataloguing project. See her details below:

I've set up a database of Wes's artwork on behalf of the still-in-formation Wesley Willis Foundation. If anyone on this list has Wes artwork, it would be really cool if you could take a moment or two to answer the following questions about each piece & forward the info to me (tsmith@heartlandalliance.org) to add to the database.

Keeping track of Wes's art will be helpful when someone wants to do a restrospective gallery showing or a book of his work, and, of course, for posterity. Even if you think the piece you have is "typical" or uninteresting, it adds to the whole body of Wes's work.

TITLE? ex: "It's the Dan Ryan Expressway 1996"

YEAR? (if unsure then guess as close as possible & note that it's a guess)

SIZE? (unframed) MEDIUM? ex: colored marker and pencil on poster board

Extra info - good if available: OWNERSHIP HISTORY? ex: purchased directly from artist, Chicago

EXHIBITION & LITERATURE? If you know the piece was in an art exhibition or was published in a book, magazine, etc., please note it.

Thanks! : ) Tammy

I'm going to change the upload instructions on this site to match this data, so that we can align our efforts and make them most effective.