Clayton Bailey

Clayton George Bailey (March 9, 1939 – June 6, 2020), was an American artist who worked primarily in the mediums of ceramic and metal sculpture.

Clayton George Bailey was born on March 9, 1939, in Antigo, Wisconsin.

In middle school he met his future wife, artist Betty Joan Graveen (Betty G. Bailey).

Bailey attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he received a B.S. degree in 1961, followed by an M.S. in Art and Art Education in 1962.

In 1962, Bailey served as a technical assistant to Harvey Littleton, who was conducting glassblowing seminars at the Toledo Museum of Art.

Over the next five years, Bailey traveled the country accepting invitations to teach, from the People's Art Center in St. Louis, Missouri to positions with the University of Iowa, and the University of South Dakota.

During this period Bailey received a Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant (1963), and was appointed artist-in-residence at University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, where he taught ceramics for the following three years.

At the request of Robert Arneson, Bailey taught Arneson's classes at the University of California, Davis while Arneson was on sabbatical in 1967.

In 1968, Bailey relocated to northern California, where he became a leading figure in the ceramic vein of the regional Funk art movement, pioneered by Arneson.

Much of the Funk art activity was centered around UC Davis, where other prominent figures in the movement (Roy De Forest, Manuel Neri, William T. Wiley, David Gilhooly, Chris Unterseher, Margaret Dodd) either taught, or attended classes.

A leading venue for exhibiting Funk art was at the Candy Store Gallery, located in nearby Folsom, California, where Bailey would regularly present work in the context of both solo and group shows.

In 1968, Bailey began teaching at California State University, Hayward (now California State University, East Bay).

Bailey became an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church in 1969, then formed The First Psychoceramic Church with headquarters in the Dairyville Cafe in Crockett, California.

His church was created for the purpose of disseminating crackpot ideas (and performing the occasional marriage ceremony).

Another track for artistic expression developed with the creation of Bailey's alter ego Dr. George Gladstone, beginning in 1969.

Initially, the works blended performance and creations based on pseudo-science and personal mythologies.

Works included the creation of fossilized remains (usually ceramic or from earth materials) and the classification of a new time period, the Pre-Credulous Era, the source of such Kaolithic curiosities as a cyclops skull and a Bigfoot skeleton.

Dressed in a lab coat and pith helmet, Bailey as Dr. Gladstone performed excavations and staged performances and pranks.

The World of Wonders, a traveling museum dedicated to Dr. Gladstone's life and work was developed, and presented in various venues, beginning with the Richmond Art Center.

In 1970, Bailey established a home-studio space in rural Port Costa, California, where he became neighbors with fellow artist Roy De Forest.

Most notable have been sculptures based on robots, beginning in the late 1970s and continuing on to today, although this work is now presented, and credited as Bailey's, not Dr. Gladstone's. The latest offshoot of the metallic sculpture (built from found materials and objects) had been a series of Space Guns.

Bailey and his wife, fellow artist Betty G. Bailey, resided in Port Costa, California from 1970 until their deaths.

In 1972, Bailey co-curated the first-ever Nut art show at California State University, Hayward.

Stylistically, Bailey's work bridged several different categories and styles including Funk art, Nut art, ceramic and metallic sculpture, and Performance art.

A recurring thread through all his work is humor, along with a high degree of craftsmanship.

In 1974, Bailey was profiled in Esquire Magazine as Dr. Gladstone.

In the article written by Susan Subtle, "Their Arts Belong to Dada", Bailey was featured alongside artists Lowell Darling, Anna Banana, Ant Farm (group), Futzie Nutzle, Dr. Brute & Lady Brute, Mr. Peanut, Irene Dogmatic, AA Bronson, Captain Video, Flakey Rose Hip, Henry Humble, The Gluers and Dickens Bascom, Don and Rae Davis, and T.R. Uthco.

Bailey continued to work in a variety of mediums and styles until his death.

Throughout his career as an artist, Bailey exhibited regularly throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia in both solo and group exhibitions.

In 1976, the Wonders of the World Museum opened in downtown Port Costa, where it became a local tourist attraction until its closure in 1978.

The collection is now split between Bailey's home-studio, and the Bailey Art Museum in downtown Crockett, California.

Over the years, the Dr. Gladstone character evolved into something more akin to a mad scientist, allowing Bailey to explore other forms of art with pseudo-scientific origins and associations.

He retired from this position in June 1996, with the title of Professor Emeritus of Ceramics.

The two collaborated on numerous projects, and remained friends until De Forest's death in 2007.

Overlapping the Funk art movement was Nut art, a term coined by De Forest, which brought together many of the same practitioners including Arneson, De Forest, and Gilhooly, along with Peter Saul, Jerry Gooch, Victor Cicanski, Richard Shaw, David Zack.

In 2011, Bailey was honored with a 50-year retrospective exhibition (Clayton Bailey's World of Wonders) at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California.

In 2013, Bailey and his wife, artist Betty G. Bailey, founded the Bailey Art Museum in Crockett, California.

Betty died on March 20, 2019.

His health had deteriorated after a stroke in 2019.

Bailey died at his Port Costa home on June 6, 2020.