An Improbable Odyssey: The Life and Times of Brian Wall

“The problem,” artist Brian Wall observes, “is making art.” Renowned for his large-scale abstract steel sculptures, Wall taught at UC Berkeley from 1972 to 1994, and he continues to live and make art in the Bay Area at age ninety-two. Born in London in 1931, he was involved with the Modernist art movement of St. Ives, Cornwall, in the 1950s, worked and taught in London during the 1960s, and came to the United States in the 1970s. Interviews with Wall in his studio, and with curators, collectors, and artists—including BAMPFA’s founding director, Peter Selz; Kenneth Baker; Roselyne C. Swig; Jon Carroll; and Jeremy P. Stone—detail the creative context of these times and places, and of Wall’s own artistic contributions.