Digging Implement
1982
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
etching in black on Rives paper
Dimensions
plate: 63.2 x 5.1 cm (24 7/8 x 2 in.) sheet: 86.7 x 20.6 cm (34 1/8 x 8 1/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Kathan Brown
Accession Number
1998.40.484
Art Historical Context
William T. Wiley's *Digging Implement* (1982) is a striking black etching on Rives paper, measuring a slender plate size of 63.2 x 5.1 cm. Housed in the National Gallery of Art's print collection as a gift from pioneering printmaker Kathan Brown, this work exemplifies Wiley's playful yet probing approach to everyday objects. Born in 1937, Wiley emerged in the 1960s Bay Area art scene, blending Funk art's irreverence with wordplay, puns, and social commentary. Tools like this "digging implement"—perhaps a spade or probe—often appear in his oeuvre as metaphors for exploration, labor, or unearthi...