1922 Born in San Francisco, CA.
1939 Began evening classes at California School of Fine Arts.
1940-1943 Full-time student at California School of Fine Arts.
1943-1946 Military service in W.W.II (European Theater).
1946-1950 Student at University of California at Berkeley. BA, 1950.
1947 First trip to Mexico. Saw Orozco retrospective.
1949-1955 Shared studio with James Weeks
1950 Studied with Max Beckmann at Mills College.
1951 Received MA in art from University of California at Berkeley
1951 Exhibition of paintings at Lucien Labaudt Gallery
1953 Married Helyn Lum.
1953, 1954, 1956, 1957 Trips to Mexico.
1955 Exhibition of paintings at Lucien Labaudt Gallery
1955-1956 Student in Education at San Francisco State University.
1957-1983 Teacher, special education, SF School District, Youth Guidance Center.
1958 Daughter Maria Tai Wolff was born.
1960 Began working in woodcut prints.
1962 Exhibition of woodcuts at City Lights Books in San Francisco.
1962-1968 Exhibited prints at Original Prints Gallery in San Francisco.
1968 Studied etching with Gordon Cook.
1969 Studied lithography with Dick Graf.
1970 - 2001 Active with the Graphic Arts Workshop, San Francisco.
197 1Exhibited etchings and lithographs at John Bolles Gallery, San Francisco.
1971-1972 Work in animated film. Completed animated short, "The Art of War,"1972.
1972, 1975 Exhibited etchings and woodcuts at Marquoit Gallery, San Francisco.
1976 Exhibition of "Actor Print Series," Berkeley Stage Company,
Berkeley'
1981 Death of wife, Helyn Lum Wolff
1981 Exhibition of woodcuts at the Printmakers Gallery, San Francisco.
1983 Exhibited in the Bay Area Woodblocks show at the World Print Council, SF.
1984 Exhibition of woodcuts at F. J. Michaels Gallery, San Francisco.
1986 Joined the California Society of Printmakers
1987 Married Marguerite Craig.
1987-1988 Studied with Rupert Garcia.
1987 Exhibition of pastel drawings at F. J. Michaels Gallery, San Francisco.
1988 "Woodcuts," exhibit at Warner Roberts Gallery, Palo Alto,
CA
1988-1990 President, California Society of Printmakers.
1996 Death of Daughter Maria Tai Wolff
1998 Death of second wife Marguerite Craig
1999 Exhibition "Write the Things Which Thou Hast Seen, woodcuts, etchings and paintings by William Wolff" Fetterly
Gallery, Vallejo, CA
2000 Honored by the Graphics Arts Workshop for his many years of artistic contribution
2002 Retrospective at St. Mary's College, Hearst Gallery, Moraga,
CA
2004 William Wolff died October 29th.
Collections
• Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
• New York Public Library, New York
• Library of Congress, print collection, Washington, DC
• St. Mary’s College of California Museum of Art, Moraga, CA
• Achenbach Collection, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA
• Georgia Museum of Art
• De Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA
• Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
• San Francisco Public Library Special Collections, San Francisco
• Janet Turner Print Gallery, Chico State University, Chico, CA
• The Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
• Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, CA
• Bancroft Library, U.C. Berkeley, CA
• Fetterly Gallery, Vallejo Community Arts Foundation Collection, Vallejo, CA
• City and County of San Francisco
• Print Club of Albany, Albany, NY
Solo Shows:
2009 William Wolff: A Printmakers Odyssey, Artzone 461, San Francisco.
2009 William Wolff: Paintings from the Estate, Artzone 461, San Francisco.
2007 William Wolff: Paintings from the 1950s and 1960s, Charles Campbell Gallery, San Francisco.
2007 William Wolff - The Invisible City, Warnock Fine Arts, San Francisco, catalogue
2002 Masquerade and Revelation: A William Wolff Retrospective, Heart Art Gallery, St. Mary’s College of California, Moraga, CA, catalogue
available
1999 Write the Things Which Thou Hast Seen, woodcuts, etchings and paintings by William Wolff , Fetterly Gallery, Vallejo, CA, catalogue
1988 Woodcuts, Warner Roberts Gallery, Palo Alto, CA
1987 Pastel Drawings, F. J. Michaels Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1984 Woodcuts, F. J. Michaels Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1981 Recent Woodcuts, Printmakers Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1976 Actor Print Series, Berkeley Stage Company, Berkeley, CA
1975 Etchings and Woodcuts, Marquoit Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1975 Select Arts, San Francisco, CA
1974 Printmaker’s Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1974 Vintage 1870 Depot Gallery, Napa Valley
1972 Serigraphs, etchings, Psyche and Symbol Gallery, Berkeley, CA
1972 Etchings and Woodcuts, Marquoit Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1969 Etchings, Lithographs, Serigraphs, Print Room, John Bolles Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1969 San Francisco Arts Commission woodcut show, San Francisco, CA
1968 Woodcuts, Trutton Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1962-1968 Prints shown at Original Prints Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1962 Woodcuts, City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco, CA
1955 Oil Paintings, Lucien Labaudt Gallery
Significant Group Exhibitions
2010 A Century of American Color Block Prints, Annex Galleries, Santa Rosa
2009 Six Centuries of Printmaking, Artzone 461, San Francisco.
2009 Southern Graphics Council Memorial Exhibition, presented with Anchor Graphics, Harold Washington College, curated by David Johnson, Associate Professor, Ball State University
2005. Looking Back and Seeing Forward, Charles Campbell Gallery, San Francisco
2003 The Curatorial Eye: Fifteen Perspectives, (curated by Theres Rohan) Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, Santa Rosa
2002 Proof(s) of Life, The Graphic Arts Workshop 1952 - 2002, Meridian Gallery, San Francisco
2001 The Spirit of Handmade Prints, California Society of Printmakers, Triton Museum, Santa Clara, CA
1997 Prints from Wood 2, Collectors Gallery, Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
The Shakespeare Folio, Coastal Arts League Museum Gallery 92 West, Half Moon Bay, CA
1994 Pacific Prints, Pacific Art League, Palo Alto, CA
1994 The Cutting Edge, Woodblocks and Linocuts, C. I. Clark Galleries, Bakersfield, CA
1992 Contemporary Relief Print-Making, College of the Mainland Art Gallery, Texas City, TX
1992
Directions in Bay Area Printmaking: 3 Decades, Palo Alto Cultural Center, Palo Alto, CA
1992 Black and White, Woodcuts, Ebert Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1990 Original Prints by the Graphics Arts Workshop, Kerns Art Center, Eugene, Oregon
1989 Five Printmakers, Printmakers Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Woodcuts, Golden West College, Huntington Beach, CA
1988 CA
In Relief. Contemporary Printmaking, Modesto Jr. College Art Gallery, Modesto, CA
1985 Seven San Francisco Printmakers, South of Market Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA
1983 Bay Area Woodblocks, World Print Council, San Francisco, CA
1977 Seven Bay Area Artists (including Charles Griffin Farr, and Emmy Lou Packard) Marina View Gallery, Fort Mason, San Francisco,
1974. San Francisco Art Commission Group Exhibition, Palace of the Legion of Honor,
Three minute animated film, Act of War, shown in Ultra Films program, Oakland Museum,
Prints by 4 San Francisco Artists,
1974
The Depot Gallery, Yountville, CA with Emmy Lou Packard, Ethel Weiner Guttman and Ken Byler
1966 Drawings From San Francisco, traveling exhibition organized by the San Francisco Art Institute’s Art Bank, catalog.
1965 The Figure: West Coast, Laguna Beach Art Association invitational exhibit.
1965 5th Annual Mercyhurst National Exhibition, Prints and Drawings, Erie Art Center, Erie PA
1965 California Society of Etchers National Print Exhibition, San Francisco Fine Arts Museum.
1964 -66 Natural and Supernatural, traveling exhibition of prints organized by the San Francisco Art Institute’s Art Bank, catalog.
1963 Art in Embassies exhibition, toured 34 countries shown in New York at the IBM Gallery and the Oakland Museum with 28 Bay Area printmakers, Catalogue produced for show in Dacca Bangladesh with image of print “Landscape”
1962 The San Francisco Art Institute’s Art Bank catalog of 1962-63. Oil painting “Landscape with Figures” reproduced
1962 Second Summer Festival, Tacoma Art League, Tacoma, WA, oil painting “Landscape with Figures” on back cover of catalog
1959 Contemporary Figurative Painting, traveling exhibition organized by the San Francisco Art Institute’s Art Bank, catalog of Art Bank
1958 The San Francisco Art Institute’s Art Bank catalog of 1958. Oil painting “The Gate” reproduced
Awards
2000 Honored by the Graphics Arts Workshop for his many years of artistic contribution
1976 Purchase Award, Annual San Francisco Arts Festival
1967 Graphics Award, Rochester Festival of Religious Art, Rochester, New York
1951 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Annual Art Show, Drawing Award
1960 Oil painting on Extended loan to the Oakland Museum
(now in permanent collection)
Artist Books Portfolios
1993-2002 in collaboration with Paper Crane Press, Half Moon Bay, CA
5 Artists Folio
The Shakespeare Folio
12 artists
Poems - Poetry of James Campbell––14 woodcuts with letterpress
Simon Peter Saith Unto Them, “I go a fishin’,” ––5 etchings with letterpress
Poets and Printmakers ––1962 in collaboration with Andrew Hoyem. Portfolio publixhed by San Francisco Arts Commission
Associations
Graphic Arts Workshop, San Francisco, CA member since 1970
California Society of Printmakers, Berkeley, CA (President 1988-1989)
Education
• MA, University of California, Berkeley, 1951
• BA, University of California, Berkeley, 1950
• Studied at the California School of Fine Arts 1939-1943
Special studies
• Studied with Rupert Garcia 1987-1988
• Studied lithography with Richard Graf 1969
• Studied etching with Gordon Cook 1968
• Studied with Max Beckmann at Mills College 1950
• Shared studio with James Weeks 1949 - 1955
Teacher
• Guest Speaker, Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA, 1994
• Catherine Julie Cunningham Visiting Scholar, Lectured on “James Weeks: An Artist’s
View” College of Notre Dame, Belmont, CA, Spring,1992
• Special Ed., San Francisco School District, Youth Guidance Center, 1957- 1983
• 1980 Fort Mason, San Francisco, introduction to woodcut printmaking
• 1971 SF Museum of Art Animation Workshop Artist in Residence with Todd Flinchbaugh