Artist of the Day, November 7, 2020: William Wegman, an American artist, painter, photographer (#1140)

William Wegman (1943) is an American artist best known for creating series of compositions involving dogs, primarily his own Weimaraners in various costumes and poses.

Wegman originally intended to pursue a career as a painter. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 1965 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1967.

By the early 70s, Wegman's work was being exhibited in museums and galleries internationally. In addition to solo shows with Sonnabend Gallery in Paris and New York, Situation Gallery in London and Konrad Fisher Gallery in Düsseldorf, his work was included in such seminal exhibitions as "When Attitudes Become Form," and "Documenta 5" and regularly featured in Interfunktionen, Artforum and Avalanche.

While he was in Long Beach, Wegman got his dog, Man Ray, with whom he began a long and fruitful collaboration. Man Ray, known in the art world and beyond for his endearing deadpan presence, became a central figure in Wegman's photographs and videotapes. In 1982, Man Ray died, and was named "Man of the Year" by the Village Voice. It was not until 1986 that Wegman got a new dog, Fay Ray, and another collaboration began marked by Wegman's extensive use of the Polaroid 20 x 24 camera. With the birth of Fay's litter in 1989, Wegman's cast of characters grew to include Fay's offspring — Battina, Crooky and Chundo — and later, their offspring: Battina's son Chip in 1995, Chip's son Bobbin in 1999 and Candy and Bobbin's daughter Penny in 2004.

Although primarily known as a photographer, Wegman returned to painting in the mid 1980s Among his oeuvre of paintings are a number of canvases filled with smoke and fire that depict natural and manmade disasters. Volcano, in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art demonstrates this aspect of the artist's work.

He appeared on The Colbert Report in 2010. Wegman is the author of numerous books for children, including the New York Times bestseller Puppies. His latest children's book, Flo & Wendell, is published with Dial Books for Young Readers.

His work, which includes photography, video, painting and drawing, is held in permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hammer Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Centre Pompidou and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

His work has also been a popular success, and have appeared in books, advertisements, films, as well as on television programs like Sesame Street and Saturday Night Live. In 2006, Wegman's work was featured in a retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Norton Museum of Art, Wexner Center for the Arts and the Addison Gallery of American Art. The show, entitled William Wegman: Funney/Strange, explored 40 years of his work in all mediums.

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Man Ray and William Wegman

 Lawn Chair, 1988

 Eerie Chair, 1989

 Dog Walker, 1990

 Kit, 1991

 Oaken, 1992

 3D Shadow, 1993

 Eyewear II, 1994

 Patriotic Poodle, 1994

 Paw,1994

 The Secret, 1994

 Look Out, 1997

 Headers, 1998

 Water Work, 1998

 Feathered Footwear,1999

 In Two Parts, 1999

 Opera, 1999

 Slightly, 1999

 Walk-a-thon, 1999

 Stanley, 2001

 Strippy, 2001

 Junior, 2002

 Umbrella, 2002

 Arcade Game, 2003

 Presentation, 2004

 Golden Mean, 2005

 Green Beret, 2005

 Portugal, 2005

 Contact, 2014

 The Letter, 2014

 Eames Low, 2015

 Ocean View, 2015

 On-Up, 2015

 Looking Right, 2015

 Pawns, 2015

 Being human, 2018

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