# William T. Wiley artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/william-t-wiley/
Profile generated: 2026-05-10T02:40:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1937-10-21
- Death date: 2021-04-25
- Nationality: American
- Movements: Funk art
- Common media: Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Etching / Printmaking, Film, Performance

## About William T. Wiley

William Thomas Wiley (1937–2021) was an American artist whose practice encompassed painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, film, and performance. Born in Bedford, Indiana, Wiley became a central figure in the Northern California art scene, settling in the San Francisco Bay Area. He taught at the University of California, Davis from 1962 to 1973, where his students included Bruce Nauman. Wiley's work is often associated with the Funk art movement that emerged from the Bay Area in the 1960s, characterized by irreverent humor, personal symbolism, and a refusal to conform to the prevailing Minimalism of the era. His pieces are held in major institutional collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Over a career spanning more than five decades, Wiley maintained a distinctive visual language rooted in wordplay, self-referential imagery, and meticulous craft across diverse materials.

## Common works and media

Wiley's auction and appraisal footprint includes oil and acrylic paintings on canvas and panel, watercolors and ink drawings on paper, etchings and lithographic prints (often in limited editions), mixed-media assemblages and sculptural constructions, and experimental films. His imagery frequently incorporates text, puns, and self-portraiture. Collectors encountering Wiley works at auction most commonly find prints, works on paper, and smaller-scale paintings.

## Market and appraisal context

William T. Wiley maintains an active and well-documented secondary market with 239 auction lots recorded since 2005, of which 177 carried realized prices. His market shows broad liquidity: lots appear regularly at major houses including Bonhams, Christie's, Hindman, and Freeman's | Hindman, as well as specialist regional firms such as Los Angeles Modern Auctions, Rago Arts and Auction Center, Swann Auction Galleries, STAIR, and Heritage Auctions. Price dispersion is wide—realized prices range from $40 for individual prints to $100,000 at the top end. The interquartile spread ($500–$3,000, median $1,100) indicates that mid-tier works on paper and prints dominate transaction volume, while significant paintings and mixed-media constructions command five-figure results. The strongest recent result was $25,000 for "Crew Dark and the Captain's Crackers" (1985) at Bonhams in September 2025. Auction frequency has been stable, with 15 lots in the most recent 12-month window versus 19 in the prior period, suggesting consistent but slightly reduced throughput. Collectors should note that medium, period, and scale heavily influence value: prints and small works on paper cluster below $1,000, while unique paintings and sculptural works from the 1960s–1970s UC Davis period tend to outperform.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

William T. Wiley maintains an active and well-documented secondary market with 239 auction lots recorded since 2005, of which 177 carried realized prices. His market shows broad liquidity: lots appear regularly at major houses including Bonhams, Christie's, Hindman, and Freeman's | Hindman, as well as specialist regional firms such as Los Angeles Modern Auctions, Rago Arts and Auction Center, Swann Auction Galleries, STAIR, and Heritage Auctions. Price dispersion is wide—realized prices range from $40 for individual prints to $100,000 at the top end. The interquartile spread ($500–$3,000, median $1,100) indicates that mid-tier works on paper and prints dominate transaction volume, while significant paintings and mixed-media constructions command five-figure results. The strongest recent result was $25,000 for "Crew Dark and the Captain's Crackers" (1985) at Bonhams in September 2025. Auction frequency has been stable, with 15 lots in the most recent 12-month window versus 19 in the prior period, suggesting consistent but slightly reduced throughput. Collectors should note that medium, period, and scale heavily influence value: prints and small works on paper cluster below $1,000, while unique paintings and sculptural works from the 1960s–1970s UC Davis period tend to outperform.

### Appraisal notes

Appraisily draws on 239 recorded auction lots spanning 2005–2026 to establish a market baseline for William T. Wiley. When a collector submits a work for appraisal, Appraisily compares it against this dataset using medium, dimensions, date, signature, condition, and provenance. For prints, edition number and size are critical comparables. For paintings and sculptures, period (especially the 1960s–1970s UC Davis era), scale, and complexity are the primary value drivers. Because no catalogue raisonné exists, Appraisily cross-references auction-house records from Bonhams, Christie's, Hindman, Rago, Los Angeles Modern Auctions, and other observed houses to locate the closest comparable lots. Photographs submitted by the collector are compared against known auction imagery for medium confirmation and visual consistency. The wide price range ($40–$100,000) means that a detailed description is essential—without medium, dimensions, and date, estimates may span multiple quartiles.

### Valuation factors

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### Collector notes

- If you own a William T. Wiley work, the medium and date are the two strongest predictors of market value. Signed prints from editions (etchings, lithographs) most commonly sell between $50 and $600; unique works on paper such as ink drawings and watercolors typically range from $300 to $1,800; and paintings or major mixed-media works from the 1960s–1970s can reach $9,000–$25,000 at established houses like Bonhams and Christie's. If you are considering a purchase, verify that the medium and edition details match the listing, and confirm signature authenticity—Wiley's hand is distinctive but his informal drawings and inscribed works can be difficult to distinguish without specialist review. The market is liquid enough that works appear at auction nearly every month, so comparable pricing is generally available. Be cautious with unsigned or unattributed works offered without provenance, as the absence of a catalogue raisonné makes definitive attribution harder.

### Market caveats

- The price distribution is heavily skewed: prints and small drawings dominate transaction volume at the lower end, while a small number of significant paintings drive the upper range. Median and quartile figures reflect the print-heavy volume and may understate painting values.
- No comprehensive catalogue raisonné was identified in the source pack; attribution verification may require specialist consultation, particularly for unsigned works on paper.
- The $100,000 maximum recorded price is an outlier well above the p75 of $3,000 and should not be treated as representative.
- Auction frequency decreased from 19 lots (prior 12 months) to 15 lots (most recent 12 months); this may reflect normal market variation rather than a structural shift, but the trend should be monitored.
- Some recent lots were offered at small regional houses (Winter Associates, Neue Auctions, Soulis Auctions) where prices may reflect local buyer pools rather than national market levels.
- Category labels were not available for individual lots in the dataset; the assigned categories are inferred from lot titles and existing profile media, not from standardized auction-house classifications.

### Market evidence sources

- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/william-t-wiley/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0
- Invaluable: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-william-t-wiley-what-audrey-thought-she-saw-what-audrey-saw-she-thought-131-c-25f0ec1a00
- Invaluable: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-william-t-wiley-curtains-for-the-new-gallery-128-c-c95e1e20e3
- Invaluable: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-william-t-wiley-1937-2021-crew-dark-and-the-captain-s-crackers-1985-11-c-89945a0a9f
- Invaluable: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-william-t-wiley-american-1937-2021-hanging-up-the-frame-from-suite-of-daze-1976-199-c-5714949935

## Appraisily data basis

This artist page combines identity research from library authority files and museum records with auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. Appraisily draws on institutional sources including the Library of Congress, VIAF, MoMA, and the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History to establish artist identity, dates, and affiliations.

## Sources

- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80040374
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2581047
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/118464175/
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/6370
- RKD - Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/84521
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_T._Wiley