On 16 September 2015, PIASA will stage a sale devoted to the American
artist William Wegman. Among the fifty photographs selected, PIASA
will also offer for sale on September 16 a series of unique, unpublished
photographs inspired by the furniture of George Nakashima.
Since the 1970s, William Wegman has been creating work that blends humour,
irony and wit, often taking as his central subjects and muses, his Weimaraners.
Wegman was born in Massachusetts in 1943 and studied painting at the
Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the University of Illinois Champaign
Urbana. He taught at the University of Wisconsin before moving to Los Angeles
in 1970.
“Sometimes it’s the dog who makes the picture.” William Wegman
In 1971, Wegman adopted his first dog, a Weimaraner who he named “Man Ray”
in honor of the legendary photographer. Wegman was hypnotized by the dog’s
imposing, intelligent presence and Man Ray soon because his main collaborator,
the subject of Wegman’s seminal video and photgraphs of the 70s.
Along with his fellow Los Angeles artists John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha and Bruce
Nauman, Wegman created work that was funny, even perverse, upending the
Minimal and Conceptual work established on the East Coast and helping to
invent along the way what became known as West Coast Conceptual art.
In 1979, Wegman moved to New York. Man Ray died in 1982 and in 1985 Wegman
adopted a new dog, Fay Ray, who gave birth to pups who in turn gave birth to
pups. This large canine family became a multi-talented new cast of characters
for Wegman.
Through the years, Wegman has often found inspiration in juxtaposing his dogs
with furniture. Some of the most famous examples were made with the Polaroid
20 x 24 camera with which Wegman worked from 1979-2008. Included in the
PIASA auction are such highlights from this body of work as Kitrealized in 1991
or the acrobatic Classicalof 1994.
