Bill Beckley

1969

1969

1969

36 inch wide line painted from sunrise to sunset,
Painted with the color of the sky:
Yellow, blue, then orange

1969

1969

1969

1969

1969

1969

1969

On March 20, 1969 I went to “Washington’s Crossing” on the Delaware River And spilled white latex paint behind me as I walked from west to east across the river. I began at 1PM and reached the other side at 2:10PM. The river was 5 foot 6 inches (deep) at center and very cold.

1969

A month after crossing the Delaware River, in April 1969, I put on a white shirt (worn backwards) and a raincoat. I teased and powdered my hair, and photographed myself disguised as George Washington-- my first and last selfie.

1969

During the winter (1968) and spring of 1969, Italo Scanga, my professor at Tyler School of Art, and a wonderful artist himself, invited his friends and former students to backyard barbeques at his home in Elkins Park. These friends included Bruce Nauman (a former student of Italo’s who nailed a bronze plaque to a tree in Italo’s garden. It read, “A Rose has No Teeth.”) Marcia Tucker visited. She was then a young curator of the Whitney Museum, who was soon fired for a controversial show of Richard Tuttle that she organized in 1975.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtuHJz7WDzk

Sol le Witt visited too. He came to see my graduate works in my dorm room at Tyler School of Art. Later I met him at his show of wall drawings at Virginia Dwan Gallery on 57th Street in NYC. he saw my exhibitions in New York and we became friends. Sol died on April 8, 2007. Painted shrubs for Sol le Witt was my 1969 homage to Sol after meeting him at Italo’s home in 1969. Italo had his students in his sauna naked and in his basement making watercolors on the back of Campbell Soup labels. He was a true gentleman.

1968

1968

1968