John Wilde - Teaching

Teaching

Wilde taught drawing at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1948 until his retirement in 1982 as the Alfred Sessler Distinguished Professor of Art. He was one of a number of influential artists who began to teach at the University after the war, including the printmakers Alfred Sessler (1909–1963) and Warrington Colescott (b. 1921) and the glass artist Harvey Littleton (b. 1922). Aaron Bohrod (1907–1992) took over John Steuart Curry's (1897-1946) position as artist-in-residence at the university in 1948, continuing in the position until 1978. Although he began his career as an urban regionalist, by 1954 Bohrod was firmly associated with magic realism for his trompe l'oeil still lifes. However, he did no teaching, other than rare class visits to his studio, and Wilde held silent disdain for both Bohrod and Curry, believing the intensity of his surreal world more vital (and risk-taking) than their more straightforward simplicity, and the craft of his drawing discipline more demanding than theirs. (Of course both far outsold him and outran him in popular attention through most of mid century.)

In fact, despite his edgy themes, as a life drawing teacher Wilde taught very traditionally, using the model primarily for long poses and expecting close watching and high discipline from students. With a manner of quiet dignity and a respect for art history not always popular in the department from the sixties on, he incorporated intellectual components in his life drawing class by requiring student-led, exacting critiques of classical drawings. One assignment necessitated visiting the Graphics Department at the Art Institute of Chicago to examine first-hand a drawing selected from their inventory.

And yet, despite going against the contemporary grain (he knew he was an anomaly among modern and post modern trends), Wilde influenced many students over his 35 years of teaching; for example, three of his more notable are book illustrator Nancy Ekholm Burkert (b.1933); contemporary artist Bruce Nauman (b. 1941) and Wynn Chamberlain (b. 1929), a magic realist painter and a producer and director of erotic films.

In October–November, 1989, in a spirit of retrospective survey, he headed a group exhibit at Fanny Garver Gallery in Madison with 17 of his former students. He also designed the exhibition poster based on a silver point (private collection) in which he depicted each participant as an apple-head emerging like a herd from the horizon with himself in the back; suitably so the apples, as apples recur consistently as life-affirming in Wilde's work through the years. Portraying the many valued former students ("all good apples") as it did, both the poster and show provided further evidence of the extent and quality of Wilde's educational legacy.