A simple coin. Legend has it that the purchase of a young Weimaraner, for $ 35, decided on the launch of a coin. William Wegman (born in 1934) chose one side. The piece falls from the other. He loses. Originally, the one who is then a painter still in search of his first successes did not want a dog which, however, will quickly become the main model of his photographs. "Man Ray": the name given to him alone testifies artistic inspirations of his new owner.
After studying painting at Boston University in 1965 and Champaign-Urbana, Illinois in 1967, William Wegman taught for two years at the University of Wisconsin.
It is in 1970 that the couple, shortly after their installation in California, acquires the pointer. At the margin of the artistic currents, the artist gives free rein to his plastic intuitions. Resolutely wandering, his goal is on a slice of salami. He takes the cliché, today exhibited at the Whitney Museum.
William Wegman (né en 1934)
Easy, 1992
Estimate : 10000 / 15000 €
But now, too often in the workshop, the tempestuous "Man Ray" enters the frame to demand the attention of his master.
The beginnings were difficult but in 1972 several galleries, first in New York and then in London, Houston and even Düsseldorf present his photographs.
With a touch of irony and critical distance, William Wegman's shots show the postures and anthropomorphic expressions of his dog. Produced by the encounter between nature and culture, the strangeness of the scenes pushes the viewer to question his own behavior and the relation he has with the animal world.
Since the 1980s, many museums present his photographs as the National Museum of Modern Art who organized an exhibition in 1991.
Easy, the photography proposed by PIASA during the sale “5 au 118” was taken in 1992. The braque is taken in profile, the two front legs resting on a stool.
On September 16, 2015, PIASA organized a sale exclusively dedicated to William Wegman's works. In his photographs, the dogs were staged with the furniture of the American designer of Japanese origin, George Nakashima (1905-1990).
