Pope.L, renowned interdisciplinary artist and UChicago scholar, 1955‒2023

Photo by Peyton Fulford/©Pope.L/Courtesy the Artist

This story by Sara Patterson was originally published by UChicago News on January 4, 2024. Click here to read the full story.

William Pope.L, an acclaimed interdisciplinary artist and professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago, died on Dec. 23 at his home in Chicago. He was 68.

In the international art world, Pope.L was best known for his provocative performance art, which included crawling through the streets of New York City and Lewiston, Maine in a business suit or Superman costume and eating columns of financial news from the Wall Street Journal while smearing mayonnaise all over his torso to achieve an artificial whiteness. In addition to performance, his art also encompassed writing, photography, painting, sculpture and theater.

“Pope.L was a dedicated student of the human condition, a marvelous interlocutor and a kind soul,” said Matthew Jesse Jackson, professor in the Departments of Art History, Theater and Performance Studies, Visual Arts, and the College and chair of Visual Arts at UChicago. “He ceaselessly challenged us to think. His art is humane, generous, combative and among the most important bodies of work in the 21st century.”

Although humorously referring to himself as a “fisherman of social absurdity,” Pope.L fashioned an oeuvre of searing topicality that touched a wide range of complex socio-political issues such as access, belonging, identity, nationhood, public health and race.

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