William Wegman (photographer)

Infobox Artist
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name = William Wegman


imagesize = 250px
caption = Photograph of William Wegman.
birthname =
birthdate = December 2 ,1943
location = Holyoke, Massachusetts
deathdate =
deathplace =
nationality = American
field = Video
training = Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from Massachusetts College of Art and Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from University of Illinois in 1967
movement =
works = "La Jolla Vista View"
"Dog Duet"
patrons =
influenced by =
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William Wegman (b. 1943 in Holyoke, Massachusetts) is an artist best known for creating series of compositions involving dogs, primarily his own Weimaraners in various costumes and poses.

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

While teaching at California State University, Long Beach, he acquired the first and most famous of the dogs he photographed, a Weimaraner he named Man Ray (after the artist and photographer). Man Ray later became so popular that the Village Voice named him "Man of the Year" in 1982. He named a subsequent dog "Fay Ray" (a play on the name of actress Fay Wray).

On January 29, 1992, Wegman appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" and showed a video clip of "Dog Duet," his 1975 short of Man Ray & another dog slowly and mysteriously peering around. Wegman explained that he had created the video by moving a tennis ball around, off-camera, thus capturing the dogs' attention. [http://www.creativetime.org/programs/archive/59/artist_wegman.html]

Wegman's photos are well-respected in the art world, are held in permanent collections of the Hammer Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. His photos and videos have 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, and the Addison Gallery. The Brooklyn Museum explored 40 years of Wegman’s work in all media in the 2006 retrospective "William Wegman: Funney/Strange". [citation | title= William Wegman Retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum | publisher=ARTINFO | year=2006 | date= May 28, 2006 | url= http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/13358/william-wegman-retrospective-at-the-brooklyn-museum/ | accessdate=2008-04-23 ] The exhibition also ran at the Wexner Center for the Arts in 2007.

On "Sesame Street"

Wegman's dogs first appeared on "Sesame Street" in 1989. Fay Ray starred in segments like "Old McFay Counts to 40". In February 1996, descendants Battina, Crooky, Chundo, and Chip starred in new segments based on nursery rhymes. Wegman told "Entertainment Weekly", "They are only [being shot] maybe 30 seconds at a time. The rest of the time they're sitting around, rather blase about life." [cite news | last=Baldwin | first=Kristen | title=Dressed to the canines | date=23 February 1996 | publisher=Entertainment Weekly | url=http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rch&an=9602293771, through EBSCOhost.]

Segments include:
* "Old McFay Counts to 40", 1989, with Fay Ray as Old McFay.
* "Little Miss Muffet", 1996, with Crooky as Little Miss Muffet.
* "Jack and Jill", 1996, with Crooky as Jill, and Chundo as Jack.
* "Jack Sprat", 1996, with Chundo as Mrs. Sprat, and Chip as Jack; Wegman notes this is the first time his dogs have played characters not their gender

Partial filmography

* "Dog Duet" (1974)
* "Dog Baseball" (1986)
* "Blue Monday '88" (1989) (New Order Music Video)
* "Alphabet Soup" (1995)
* "The Hardly Boys in Hardly Gold" (1996, screened at Sundance) [http://www.imageexchange.com/mvx10/engine.cgi?cid=K13W2TOlX9SJEo98zbDqk4Y7cY&store=wegman&page=default&body=sku1&sku=5211]
* "Front Porch" (1999)
* "Farm Days"
* "Fay"
* "How Do You Get to MoMaQns?"
* "Milk/Floor" (released on "Selected Video Works 1970-78")
* "Stomach Song" (released on "Selected Video Works 1970-78")
* "Randy's Sick" (released on "Selected Video Works 1970-78")
* "Pocketbook Man" (released on "Selected Video Works 1970-78")
* "Talking Fish" (released on "Selected Video Works 1970-78")
* "Out and In" (released on "Selected Video Works 1970-78")
* "Rage and Depression" (released on "Selected Video Works 1970-78")
* "Massage Chair" (released on "Selected Video Works 1970-78")
* "Crooked Finger/Crooked Stick" (released on "Selected Video Works 1970-78")
* "Deodorant" (released on "Selected Video Works 1970-78")
* "Growl" (released on "Selected Video Works 1970-78")
* "Spelling Lesson" (released on "Selected Video Works 1970-78")
* "Drinking Milk" (released on "Selected Video Works 1970-78")
* "Starter" (released on "Selected Video Works 1970-78")
* "Bad Movies" (released on "Selected Video Works 1970-78")
* "House for Sale" (released on "Selected Video Works 1970-78")
* "Horseshoes" (released on "Selected Video Works 1970-78")

Public art

* " [http://stuartcollection.ucsd.edu/StuartCollection/Wegman.htm La Jolla Vista View] " (1988) was Wegman's first major outdoor permanent sculpture, a part of the Stuart Collection on the campus of the University of California, San Diego.

Other Notable Facts

William Wegman was artist-in-residence at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts in spring 2007 where his work featured on campus in the Addison Gallery of Art.

He has also been an artist in residence at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, Massachusetts where his Circus series was created with the College's 20x24 inch Polaroid camera. He received the College's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1987.

The "Deodorant" sketch is included in the Pilot episode of A Bit of Fry and Laurie.

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/wegman/ Biography, interviews, essays, artwork images and video clips] from PBS series "Art:21 -- Art in the Twenty-First Century" Season 1 (2001).
* [http://www.amny.com/entertainment/am-wegman,0,2552551.flash amNew York Flash Interactive on Wegman's art]
* [http://www.wegmanworld.com/ William Wegman World]
* [http://dir.salon.com/story/people/bc/2000/02/08/wegman/index.xml?pn=1 "Salon" article on William Wegman]
* [http://www.hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/9/work_73.htm "Reading Two Books," 1971 photo at the Hammer Museum]
* [http://collectionsonline.lacma.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record&id=112390&type=1 "Skyscraper," 1990 at the LACMA]
* [http://americanart.si.edu/search/search_artworks1.cfm?StartRow=1&ConID=5979&format=short&db=onlyart&LastName=&FirstName=&Title=&Accession=&Keyword "Untitled (Gallop)," 1988 at the Smithsonian American Art Institute]
* [http://www.creativetime.org/programs/archive/59/artist_wegman.html The Creative Time Gallery article on William Wegman]
* [http://www.ubs.com/4/artcollection/the-collection/a-z/wegman-william-191/biography/ UBS Art Collection page on William Wegman]
* [http://www.wegmanstore.com/ WegmanStore.com- Official Web Store]
* [http://www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi$artistdetail?WEGMANW William Wegman] in the [http://www.vdb.org/ Video Data Bank]
* [http://www.microcinemadvd.com/generic/wegman/keyword/?searchStr=wegmanWilliam Wegman DVDs]