Q&A: Artist William Dunlap

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IT'S NOT EASY to have a dry Q&A with the painter, art writer, educator and commentator. He talks speedily in a charming Mississippi accent and diverts the chat with amenities ("Who are your people?"). But he does manage to passionately and knowledgably touch upon many subjects, including the influence of Washington-area institutions and artists on his own work, one of the subjects of his National Gallery of Art "Saturday Bookcase" lecture, at which he will also discuss the book "Dunlap," a lavishly illustrated partial overview of his career as a dead-serious art prankster.

» EXPRESS: Many people think artists are some kind of idiots savant who should shut up and create. What are you doing?
» DUNLAP: Well, I'm having a wonderful time in the art world, and I do wear a lot of hats. It think it's counter-productive in our society to put people in a category and never let them out. … I want to be a moving target, as it were.

» EXPRESS: What makes a Washington-area artist besides geography?
» DUNLAP: D.C. is an international city and it's a city of international art. I'm fond of saying that it has a better group of artists than it deserves, considering the meager support the arts get.

» EXPRESS: You incorporate a lot of asides about art history and literature into your own work.
» DUNLAP: Writers have been a bigger influence on me than other painters: The magic realism of the South American writers and of course the Faulkners and Weltys, James Dickey and Willie Morris. Writing was the way they got their art done.

» EXPRESS: "Dunlap" is not a complete retrospective of your work, though.
» DUNLAP: No, first off, it's not a retrospective because there was never an exhibition attached to it. It's an effort to reconcile all these sort of outrageous things that I've been doing — the painting and sculptures and performance art.

» EXPRESS: What should readers who may be unfamiliar with your work know about the book?
» DUNLAP: Well, I do like to sign it in a special way, for people who deserve it. I just add something to that boy dog on the cover. I don't know how you're gonna say that …

» EXPRESS: Me, either.
» DUNLAP: Let's just say there's a surprise in store. [Chuckles] It's not anthropomorphizing, but all animals in my work are stand-ins for people; they're metaphors, they're part of my repertory company. That that old boy dog standing there looking at you is someone I know, someone you know. He may be in the U.S. Senate.

» EXPRESS: Do you have a favorite place to just stand and look?
» DUNLAP: These images come from driving up and down the interstate, driving up the roads. If there's the right juxtaposition of light, building and place, I pull off and try to make a little drawing, try to remember it. ... I've been accused of making the same painting over and over again, and I say yep, and I'm gonna do it until I get it right.

» National Gallery of Art, 600 Constitution Ave. NW; Sat., 3 p.m., free; 202- 737-4215. (Archives-Navy Mem'l)

Photo courtesy the University Press of Mississippi