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I Hope You Learned Your Lesson

William T. Wiley

Artwork Details

I Hope You Learned Your Lesson
1974
William T. Wiley
color etching, sugarlift and hand-burnished aquatint on J. Barcham Green paper
28 1/16 x 22 ¼ in. (71.28 x 56.52 cm);32 x 25 15/16 in. (81.28 x 65.88 cm);10 3/8 x 12 5/8 in. (26.35 x 32.07 cm)
Museum Purchase
1992/1.122

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Description

Published by Landfall Press Inc., 63 West Ontario Street, Chicago, IL 60610.

Subject Matter:

Wiley's use of text here confronts the viewer with an age-old aphorism "I hope you learned your lesson," while infusing the work with a sense of irony and humor by creating the illusion of erasure and rewrites giving an instability to what reads as incontrovertible text. Adding an element of self-reference to the work, Wiley leaves the ghost of his birth year, 1937, visible as an erasure at the bottom left of the print.

Physical Description:

Print made to resemble a wood framed chalk board; dated lower left 1974; at lower right, artist's insignia a capital W within a circle.

Usage Rights:

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