JOHN
HALEY
Painter, Teacher,
1905-1991
Biography
John Haley was a participant of long standing in the tradition of artist/teacher in the Bay Area. He was born on September 21, 1905 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he attended public schools. Early on his predilection for creative art was manifest in superb draftsmanship in illustrations he made for his high school journal. In the early 1920s, he studied with Cameron Booth at the Minneapolis School of Fine Art, where the teaching was largely in the Beaux Arts tradition of light and shade in the development of volumetric forms.
A fellowship award in 1927 afforded Haley the opportunity to study in Munich, Germany, where Hans Hofmann had established the first school of modern art. He was among the earliest Americans to go to Europe to work with Hofmann, who would become one of the foremost artists and teachers of the 20th century. Hofmann emphasized the intrinsic factors in painting: space treatment, color, line, value, and texture. Haley quickly absorbed the master's cubist forms, soon establishing himself as one of Hofmann's most outstanding students. In 1930, Professor Worth Ryder arranged to have Hofmann come to California to conduct Summer Session classes. In the same year, upon the recommendation of Hofmann, Haley was appointed to the University of California Berkeley Art Department faculty.
John Haley and Monica, his bride of one year, traveled across the country in a Model A Ford in time for the fall semester. Haley's painting and his teaching had an immediate impact on students and other artists of the Bay Area. His influence led to the development of a style of painting known as "The Berkeley School." It was characterized by a distinctive treatment of space and a free use of tonal color with forms and textures delineated in lines of varying colors. The most popular medium was gouache, translucent watercolor, on paper. Themes were often industrial subject matter, and ghost towns and mining camps of the West.
John Haley, 1935
Erle Loran, Haley's associate at the Minneapolis School, was appointed to the Berkeley faculty in 1936 upon Haley's recommendation. Loran had just completed the research on Paul Cézanne which led to the publication of his significant book, Cézanne's Composition, by the University Press. The Hofmann-inspired teaching of Ryder, Haley, and Loran, combined with the art-education theories of Stephen C. Pepper, philosopher of esthetics, who served as chairman of the Art Department for many years, established the department as the most progressive in the field.
Worth Ryder, 1935
With the advent of Surrealism and Abstraction during the post-war years - when many figurative artists were left dangling - Haley promptly responded to this new aesthetic. He reconsidered his figural themes during a five year period of experimentation. As his images of the figure became increasingly fragmented and abstracted in this periord, Haley produced some of the most pivotal works of his career.
While Haley avoided self-promotion and his work often defied classification, critics cited comparisons to Guston, Dufy, and Cezanne. Critic John Koplans described his work in Artforum, July, 1962: "What is enjoyable about Haley's work is his deep concern for painting rather than a search for a brand image." His work was a measure of personal expression as he proclaimed in the 1933 Daily Californian, "Modern art is not a quarrel with tradition. It is tradition expressing itself in a new way."
Haley exhibited nationally and internationally. His works in private and public collections include the The Art Institute of Chicago, the Oakland Museum, the University Art Museum, Berkeley, the Phillips Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York among others. He was also the recipient of numerous honors including the San Francisco Art Association Award, the California State Fair Award, and the California Watercolor Society Award.
Source: Walter W. Horn, Karl A. Kasten, Erle Loran, James A. McCray, UC Berkeley