JOHN
HALEY
Painter, Teacher,
1905-1991
"Modern art is not a quarrel with tradition. It is tradition expressing itself in a new way."
John Haley's legacy, as is the case with most teachers, is not only to be found in his work, which over the years embraced many of the most important painting movements of the 20th century. In addition, he made fundamental contributions to the Berkeley program that produced some of the brightest lights of the new generation - Elmer Bischoff, Virginia Gould, Jay DeFeo, Richard Diebenkorn, Sam Francis, and other artists who would go on to achieve national and international recognition.
- Selections: The San Jose Museum of Art Permanent Collection
John Haley arrived in Berkeley in fall 1930 with a thorough command of Hofmann's ideas, having studied with the master at his summer school on the island of Capri in 1929, and in Munich.
- Steven A. Nash, Facing Eden: 100 Years of Landscape Art in the Bay Area, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
"Flow and stasis, light and dark, and the infinite
gradations of the spectrum
are his world, and to my taste there are few worlds as beautiful in the
total range of American painting today."
- Art critic Alfred Frankenstein, San Francisco Sunday Chronicle, September
30, 1962
As you survey John Haley's creative work, you must experience to some degree the enrichment those who knew him found in the quality of his life as an artist, a mentor, and a man of great humanity.
- Karl Kasten, Guest Curator, John Haley - A Retrospective, Richmond Art Center
John Haley was one of the most important persons that I studied with. And when I was asked what my projected program would be in teaching a graduate seminar at the College of Arts next fall, he immediately came to mind as one of the most important people that I can recall in terms of what he offered in the graduate program there.
-
Jay Defeo, Interview for the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, 1975
Mingled Notes, Fresno Art Museum, 2007
Education
and Teaching
Minneapolis School of Art; studied with Cameron Booth and Hans Hofmann,
Munich, Germany and Scuola Mosaico, Ravenna, Italy, 1927. Professor of
Art, University of California, Berkeley, 1930-1943 and 1945-1972.
Selected
Solo Exhibitions
Mortimer Levitt Gallery, New York, 1949; Richmond
Art Center, California, 1954; 17 Oil Paintings, Worth Ryder Art Gallery,
University of California Berkeley, 1962; M.H. de Young Memorial Museum,
San Francisco, 1962; Fine Arts Festival, Chico State College, 1963; M.H.
de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, 1980; The Richmond Museum, California,
1990.
Selected
Group Exhibitions
52nd-68th Annual Painting and Sculpture Exhibition
of the San Francisco Art Association (SFAA, from 1961, The San Francisco
Art Institute) at the San Francisco Museum of Art, 1932-1948; 70th-71st
Annual, 1949-1950; Art Institute of Chicago, 1940; Second Annual
Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, California Palace of
the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1947-1948; First Annual Contemporary
American Painting, University of Illinois, 1948; Artists West of
the Mississippi, 1949; University of Nebraska Annual Exhibition, 1949;
Art Movements and Public Taste Exhibition, San Francisco Museum
of Art, 1950; 30th Annual Exhibition of the California Watercolor
Society, Pasadena; 14th Annual Watercolor Exhibition, SFAA San
Francisco Museum of Art; 20th Annual; Exhibition of American
Painting Today, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1950; Contemporary
American Paintings, Des Moines Art Center, 1951; Artists West of
the Mississippi, 13th Annual of Prints and Drawings, Colorado Springs
Fine Arts Center; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas; St. Louis Museum,
St. Louis, Missouri; 50th Anniversary Show, Witte Museum, San Antonio,
Texas; Annual Spring Purchase Exhibition, Watkins Gallery, American
University, Washington, D.C.; Bay Region Artists Exhibition of Painting
and Sculpture, San Francisco Museum of Art; Opening Exhibition,
Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California, 1951; 70th Annual Oil and
Sculpture Exhibition, SFAA, San Francisco Museum; 15th Annual Drawings
and Prints Exhibition, SFAA San Francisco Museum; 15th Annual Watercolor
Exhibition, SFAA San Francisco Museum; San Francisco Art Festival,
Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco; Mortimer Levitt Gallery, New York,
1950, 1951, 1952, 1953; Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting,
University of Illinois, 1952; Art Makes Contact, San Francisco
Museum of Art; Five San Francisco Artists Exhibit, University of
Minnesota; Exhibition of American Watercolors, Drawings and Prints,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1952; 14 Artists West of the
Mississippi, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 1953; 149th Annual
Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine
Arts, Philadelphia, 1953; Painting in the USA, 1921-1953, Los Angeles
County Fair, Pomona, 1953; Contemporary American Drawings, Wisconsin
Union Gallery, University of Wisconsin, 1953; I and III Beinal,
Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, Brazil, 1955-1956; 61st Western
Annual, Denver Art Museum, 1955; 19th Annual of Drawings and Prints,
SFAA, San Francisco Museum of Art, 1956; California Drawings, Pomona
College, 1956-1957; 3rd Annual Invitational Exhibition, University
of Utah, 1957; California Artists, Centennial Exhibition, San Jose
State College, 1957; Long Beach Museum of Art Long Beach, 1958; 78th
Annual Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, SFAA San Francisco Museum
of Art; 1958-59; Fresh Paint, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum; Abstract
Expressionism in the West, University of Colorado, 1962; Drawings
from West Coast America, Art Gallery, City of Auckland, New Zealand,
1962; Expression in the West, San Francisco Art Institute Art Bank,
a traveling exhibition selected by an Francisco Museum of Art, Texas Western
College, El Paso, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, University
of Missouri, Columbia, Washington State University, Pullman, Midwestern
University, Wichita Falls, Texas, Stamford Museum, Stamford, Connecticut,
University of Wisconsin, Madison; Hans Hofmann and His Students,
New York Museum of Modern Art, traveling exhibition; Fifth Winter Invitational
Exhibition, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco,
1964; Painters Behind Painters, California Palace of the Legion
of Honor, San Francisco, 1964; Friends of Photography, Carmel,
CA, 1974; From Exposition to Exposition: Progressive and Conservative
Trends in Northern California Painting 1915-1939, Crocker Museum,
Sacramento, 1981; 1988 Regionalism, The California View, Santa
Barbara Art Museum, 1988.
Awards
San Francisco Art Association Annuals, 1936, 1939, 1944; Honorable Mention
for painting in oil, California State Fair, 1950; Crocker First National
Bank Prize for Sculpture, SFAA 70th Annual, 1951; Artists Council Prize,
SFAA 15th Annual of Drawings and Prints, 1951; Third Prize and Honorable
Mention, California State Fair, 1951; Prize for Painting, SFAA 72nd Annual
of Painting and Sculpture, 1953; Artists Council Prize, 20th Watercolor
Exhibition of San Francisco Art Association, 1956; Oil Painting Award,
Richmond Art Center, 6th Annual of Oil and Sculpture, 1956; Graphics Award,
8th Annual Watercolor Exhibit, Richmond Art Center, 1958.
Students
Boyd Allen, Bruce Beasely, Elmer Bischoff, Jerry Davis, Jay De Feo, Walter De Maria, Stephen De Staebler, Ralph Ducasse, Nancy Genn, Tom Holland, Ralph Johnson, Ynez Johnston, Karl Kasten, Robert Loberg, Fred Martin, Virginia Gould, James McCray, Mine Okubo, Margaret Peterson, Roland Peterson, Sonya Rapoport, Walter Snelgrove, Glenn Wessels, Paul Wonner